FARM  GRASSES 
LIMITED  STffES 


JC-NRLF 


M  JASPER  SHLLMAN 


UNIVERSITY  FARM 


197 

.cc 

c.a 


FARM  GRASSES 

of  the   UNITED    STATES 


Farm  Grasses 

the  UNITED  STATES 


A  PRACTICAL  TREATISE  ON  THE  GRASS 
CROP,  SEEDING  AND  MANAGEMENT  OF 
MEADOWS  AND  PASTURES,  DESCRIPTIONS 
OF  THE  BEST  VARIETIES,  THE  SEED  AND 
ITS  IMPURITIES,  GRASSES  FOR  SPECIAL 
CONDITIONS,  ETC.,  ETC.  .•  .•  .•  .•  .- 


By 
WILLIAM   JASPER  SPILLMAN 

Agrostologist,  Bureau  of  Plant   Industry,   United  States  Department  of 

Agriculture  ;  In  Charge  of  Grass  and  Forage  Plant  Investigations  ,• 

Chairman  of  Committee  in   Charge  of  Farm  Management 


ILLVS 


ORANGJUDD    COMPANY 

LONDON 

KEGAN   PAUL,   TRENCH,  TRUBNER  &  CO.,   LIMITED 
1907 


COPYRIGHT,  1905 
BY  ORANGE  JUDD  COMPANY 


Entered  at  Stationers'  Hall,  London,  England 


TABLE    OF    CONTENTS 


PAGE 

PREFACE xiii 

I.   The  Grass  Crop        .......  i 

II.   Meadows  and   Pastures    ......  14 

III.  Meadows  and  Pastures  (Continued}         ...  26 

IV.  Meadows  and   Pastures  (Concluded)         ...  42 
V.  The  Seed 56 

VI.   Timothy 75 

VII.  The  Blue-grasses      .......  go 

VIII.   The  Millets        .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .103 

IX.   Two  Prominent  Southern  Grasses          .         .         .  125 

X.    Redtop  and  Orchard-grass 146 

XI.   Brome-grass  (Bromus  inermis)          ....  164 

XII.   Grasses  of  Minor  Importance          ....  176 

XIII.  Grasses  for  Special  Conditions       ....  192 

XIV.  Lawns  and   Lawn-making         .....  200 
XV.   Miscellany          .         .         .         .         .         .                   .  217 

INDEX 243 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


Mowing  the  Lawn       ....         Frontispiece 

1.  Percentage  of  Improved  Land  Devoted  to  Hay  and 

Forage.     (Compiled  from  Census  of  1900)    .         .         3 

2.  Grain    (Including    Cow-peas)   Cut    Green    for    Hay. 

Each  dot  represents  10,000  acres.     (Compiled  from 
Census  of  1900)        .......       10 

3.  Wild,  Salt,  and  Marsh   Grasses  Cut  for  Hay.     Each 

dot  represents  10,000  acres.     (Compiled  from  Cen- 
sus of  1900)         ........       13 

4.  Haying  Scene  in  Nova  Scotia 35 

5.  Rake  for  Moving  Hay-cocks  to  Stack  ....       37 

6.  Hay-stack  Made  too  Flat       ......       38 

7.  Hay-derrick  in  Common  Use   in    Utah  39 

8.  Quack-grass  (Agropyron  repens).     A  bad  weed  in  the 

Northern    States 50 

9.  Production  of  Grass-seed  in  the  United  States.    (Com- 

piled from  Census   of  1900.)     Each  dot  represents 
10,000  bushels.     Three  counties  not  shown  on  the 
map;  each  produce  approximately   10,000  bushels 
of   grass-seed;    they   are    Linn    County,    Oregon; 
Rock  Bridge  County,  Virginia;  and  Salem  County, 
New  Jersey         ........       57 

10.  Seeds  of  Standard  Grasses,  a,  Meadow-fescue;  £, 
English  Rye-grass;  c,  Italian  Rye-grass;  d,  Tim- 
othy; e,  Redtop  in  the  chaff;/,  Redtop,  chaff  re- 
moved ;  g,  Rhode  Island  Bent;  h,  Orchard-grass. 
(G.  H.  Hicks,  Year-book,  Department  of  Agricul- 
ture, 1898) 58 


X  ILLUSTRATIONS 

FIG.  PAGE 

11.  Seeds  of  Standard  Grasses,    a,  Rescue-grass;  b,  Texas 

Blue-grass;  c,  Chess,  or  Cheat;  d,  Canada  Blue- 
grass;  e,  Bromus  inermis;  /,  Kentucky  Blue-grass. 
(G.  H.  Hicks,  Year-book,  Department  of  Agricul- 
ture, 1898) 59 

12.  Gathering  Kentucky  Blue-grass  Seed  near  Lexington, 

Kentucky.  (From  Bulletin  19,  Bureau  of  Plant  In- 
dustry, United  States  Department  of  Agriculture)  61 

13.  Curing  Kentucky  Blue-grass  Seed  Outdoors.     50,000 

bushels  in  one  curing-bin.  (From  Bulletin  19, 
Bureau  of  Plant  Industry,  United  States  Depart- 
ment of  Agriculture)  .  .  .  .  .  .63 

14.  Weed  Seeds,     a,  Pepper-grass  (Lepidium  virginicum)\ 

b,  Slender  Rush  (Juncus  ttnuis)\  c,  Velvet-grass 
(ffolcus  lanatus)\  d,  Five-finger  (Potentilla  mons- 
peliensis)]  e,  Ox-eye  Daisy  (Chrysanthemum  leucan- 
themum)\  f,  Sorrel  {Rumex acetosella)\  gt  False  Flax 
(Camelina  sativd}\  //,  Canada  Thistle  (Cardmts  ar- 
vensis}  .........  67 

15.  Home-made  Seed-tester,     a,  Closed;  b,  Open.    (From 

Farmers'  Bulletin   194,  United   States   Department 

of  Agriculture) 73 

16.  Timothy 76 

17.  Distribution  of  "Other  Tame  Grasses,"  mostly  Tim- 

othy. (Compiled  from  Census  of  1900.)  Each 
large  dot  represents  a  county  producing  more  than 
5,000  acres.  The  smaller  dots  represent  1,000 
acres  each  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .7,9 

18.  Kentucky  Blue-grass 91 

19.  Distribution  of  Kentucky  Blue-grass.      Each  dot  rep- 

resents a  correspondent  reporting  blue-grass  im- 
portant in  his  section  ......  94 


ILLUSTRATIONS  XI 

FIG.  PAGE 

20.  Acreage  of  Millet   Hay.     (Compiled   from  Census  of 

1900.)     Each  dot  represents  1,000  acres    .         .         .  105 

21.  Typical  Form  of  Foxtail  Millet 112 

22.  Broom-corn  Millet         .......  115 

23.  Barn-yard  Grass.     A  representative  of  the  Japanese 

millets 117 

24.  Bermuda  Grass 126 

25.  Distribution  of  Bermuda  Grass.     Each  dot  represents 

a  correspondent  reporting  Bermuda  Grass  important 

in  his  locality     ........     128 

26.  Plat   of    Bermuda  Grass    in  Grass-garden  at  Wash- 

ington, D.C.    (United  States  Department  of  Agri- 
culture)        129 

27.  Johnson  Grass        ........     138 

28.  Distribution  of  Johnson  Grass.     Each  dot  represents 

a  correspondent  reporting  Johnson  Grass  important 

in  his  locality 145 

29.  Redtop,  or  Herd's  Grass  (Agrostis  alba)        .         .         .     147 

30.  Distribution  of  Redtop.     Each  dot  represents  a  corre- 

spondent reporting  this   grass  important         .         .     149 

31.  Orchard-grass  (Dactylis  glomerata).     Cocksfoot  of  the 

English 155 

32.  Sod  of  Orchard-grass.    Showing  its  bunchy  character     158 

33.  Distribution  of  Orchard-grass.     Each  dot  represents 

a  correspondent  reporting  this  grass  important       .     161 

34.  Brome-grass  (Bromus  inermis) 165 

35.  Distribution  of  Brome-grass.     Each  dot  representing 

a  correspondent  reporting  it  important     .         .         .     167 

36.  Chess,  or  Cheat  (Bromus  secalinus)        .         .         .         .172 

37.  Rescue-grass  (Bromus  unioloides)  ....     174 

38.  Crab-grass 184 


Xll 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


39.  Distribution  of  Crab-grass.      Each  dot  representing  a 

correspondent  reporting  this  grass  important          .  186 

40.  Distribution  of  Carpet-grass 188 

41.  Plat    of   Bluestem    (Agropyron    occidental]   in    Grass- 

garden  at  Washington,  D.  C.     (United  States  De- 
partment of   Agriculture)          .....  iqo 

42.  Seaside    Blue-grass    (Poa    macrantha),   near    Astoria, 

Oregon.      Protecting  sand-dune   from   erosion    by 

the  wind     .........  195 

43.  Typical  View  on  Ranges  of  the  West.     Showing  Ely- 

mus  condensatus  in  low  alkaline   soil         .         .          .  199 

44.  Greensward  in  Public  Gordens,   Boston,   Mass.         .  212 

45.  Lawn-mowers,  or  Turf-makers,  in  Druid   Hill  Park, 

Baltimore,  Md.             .......  213 

46.  Varieties  of  Timothy    .......  230 

47.  Varieties  of  Timothy    .                   .         .         .         .         .  231 

48.  Improved  Varieties  of   Brome-grass   ....  233 

49.  Penicillaria,  or  Pearl  Millet 235 

50.  A  Spike           .........  237 

51.  A  Spikelet 237 

52.  A  Panicle        .........  239 

53.  Parts  of  a  Single  Floret 241 

54.  Showing  Action  of  Pollen 241 


PREFACE 


N  preparing  this  volume  the  object  has  been 
to  present,  in  connected  form,  the  main  facts 
concerning  the  grasses  grown  on  American 
farms — in  so  far,  at  least,  as  these  facts  are  of 
interest  to  the  farmer.  Actual  practice  in  grass  grow- 
ing has  been  set  forth  wherever  information  concern- 
ing it  has  been  available.  The  writer  has  attempted 
to  view  every  phase  of  the  subject  from  the  farmer's 
standpoint — with  what  measure  of  success  the  reader 
must  judge  for  himself. 

The  country  may  be  divided  into  four  regions,  each 
of  which  presents  a  different  set  of  problems.  In 
the  region  of  timothy,  clover,  and  blue-grass,  grass 
problems  are  comparatively  unimportant;  they  relate 
mainly  to  methods  of  growing  and  utilizing  well-known 
grasses,  and  to  methods  of  improving  these  grasses  by 
separating  them  into  their  constituent  varieties  and 
selecting  out  the  best.  This  region  covers  the  North- 
eastern quarter  of  the  country,  and  certain  localities  in 
the  West  and  the  Middle  South.  In  the  South,  while 
excellent  grasses  are  not  wanting,  it  happens  that  most 
of  the  grasses  best  adapted  to  the  region  possess  char- 
acteristics which  render  their  management  on  the  farm 
a  matter  of  much  difficulty.  This  subject  is  discussed 
at  length  in  the  chapter  on  Bermuda  and  Johnson 
grasses.  Grasses  having  fewer  objectionable  features 

xiii 


PREFACE 

are  much  sought  after  by  Southern  farmers,  and  some 
suggestions  are  made  in  the  text  concerning  hay  and 
pasture  plants  worthy  of  trial.  Methods  of  fitting 
grass  crops  into  Southern  cropping  systems  constitute 
another  important  problem  which  the  farmer  must 
work  out  largely  for  himself.  The  best  we  can  do  for 
him  in  this  line  is  to  give  him  the  benefit  of  the  expe- 
rience of  the  most  progressive  of  his  fellows.  This 
the  writer  has  attempted  to  do. 

On  the  irrigated  lands  of  the  West,  farmers  are  not 
particularly  concerned  about  grass  problems,  except 
where  alkali  has  begun  to  appear*.  But  there  are  im- 
mense areas  in  the  West  at  present  unutilized,  except 
in  the  primitive  fashion  of  the  herdsman  on  the  open 
range,  on  which  the  problem  is  to  find  grasses  that 
will  produce  a  crop  under  arid  or  semi-arid  conditions. 
In  so  far  as  the  solution  of  this  difficulty  has  been  ac- 
complished, the  results  are  set  forth  in  discussing  the 
individual  grasses.  Attention  is  called  to  investiga- 
tions now  in  progress  with  a  view  to  finding  other 
grasses  adapted  to  these  hard  conditions. 

The  chapter  on  seeds  was  contributed  by  Mr.  Edgar 
Brown,  in  charge  of  the  Seed  Laboratory  of  the  United 
States  Department  of  Agriculture. 

The  chapter  on  "  Lawns  and  Lawn-making M  was 
prepared  by  Mr.  C.  R.  Ball,  of  the  United  States  De- 
partment of  Agriculture. 

The  following  acknowledgments,  in  addition  to 
those  already  given,  are  due  for  illustrations  used: 

Fig.  13 — Pieters  & 'Brown,  Bulletin  19,  Bureau  of  Plant  In- 
dustry, U.  S.  D.  A. 

Fig.  14 — Pieters  &  Brown,  Bulletin  19,  Bureau  of  Plant  In- 
dustry, U.  S.  D.  A. 


PREFACE  XV 

Fig.  15 — Pieters,  Farmers'  Bulletin  123,  U.  S.  D.  A. 
Fig.  21 — Scribner,  Agros.  Bulletin  21,  U.  S.  D.  A. 
Fig.  23 — Scribner,  Agros.  Bulletin  14,  U.  S.  D.  A. 
Fig.  24 — Scribner,  Agros.  Bulletin  7,  U.  S.  D.  A. 
Fig.  27— Tracy,  Agros.  Bulletin  15,  U.  S.  D.  A. 
Fig.  29 — Scribner,  Agros.  Bulletin  17,  U.  S.  D.  A. 
Fig.  31 — Scribner.  Agros.  Bulletin  7,  U    S.  D.  A. 
Fig.  32 — Scribner,  Year-book  1897,  U.  S.  D.  A. 
Fig.  34 — Scribner,  Agros.  Bulletin  7,  U.  S.  D.  A. 
Fig.  36 — Scribner,  Agros.  Bulletin  7,  U.  S.  D.  A. 
Fig-  37— Scribner,  Agros.  Bulletin  7,  U.  S.  D.  A. 
Fig.  38 — Scribner,  Agros.  Bulletin  17,  U.  S.  D.  A. 


W.   J.    SPILIyMAN 


BUREAU  OF  PLANT  INDUSTRY 

U.  S.  Department  of  Agriculture,  1905. 


FARM    GRASSES 

OF  THE  UNITED  STATES 


THE    GRASS    CROP 

HHK  word  '  '  grass  ' '  is  used  in  two  senses.     Popu- 
larly it  is  applied  to  those  plants  that  furnish 
hay  and  pasture.     In  this  sense  it  includes 
the  clovers,  alfalfa,  the  vetches,  spurry,  and 
other  plants  belonging  to  various  families.     Botanic- 
ally  the  term  is  applied  only  to  representatives  of  a 
single  family,  known  to  botanists  as  the  Graminetz,  or 
true  grasses.     In  this  volume,  in  order  to  avoid  bur- 
densome phraseology,  the  word  is  sometimes  used  in 
the  one  sense  and  sometimes  in  the  other,  but  the  con- 
text will  always  indicate  the  meaning  intended.     In 
the  present  chapter  the  term  is  made  to  include  those 
plants  which  are  generally  grown  for  hay  and  pasture 
purposes. 

According  to  the  Census  of  1900,  about  18  percent, 
of  the  total  area  of  the  United  States  is  classed  as  im- 
proved land.  This  does  not  take  into  account  Alaska 
or  our  insular  possessions.  This  18  per  cent,  amounts 
to  414,000,000  acres.  Of  this,  only  289,000,000  is  de- 
voted to  harvested  crops,  including  some  15,000,000 
acres  of  wild  grasses  cut  for  hay.  This  leaves  about 


2  FARM    GRASSES    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES 

1 25,000,000  acres  of  improved  land  devoted  to  orchards, 
woodlands,  and  pastures.  Since  practically  all  the 
improved  woodland  is  pastured,  and  since  the  area  in 
orchards  is  relatively  very  small,  it  is  safe  to  say  that 
at  least  120,000,000  acres  of  this  area  is  grass-land 
used  for  pasture  purposes.  Of  the  harvested  crops, 
about  59,000,000  acres  is  devoted  to  hay.  It  is  thus 
seen  that  the  hay  crop  occupies  over  22  per  cent,  of  all 
land  from  which  crops  are  harvested,  while  hay  and 
pasture  lands  together  constitute  about  43  per  cent,  of 
the  total  area  of  improved  land.  The  value  of  the  hay 
crop  for  the  year  1899  is  estimated  at  $484,256,846. 
The  only  crop  exceeding  this  was  corn. 

It  is  impossible  to  estimate  the  value  of  the  feed 
obtained  from  the  120,000,000  acres  of  improved  pas- 
ture-land; but  when  we  add  the  value  of  this  and  the 
pasture  value  of  the  remaining  82  per  cent,  of  the  total 
area  of  the  country  classed  as  unimproved  land,  nearly 
all  of  which  is  grazed,  it  is  probable  that  the  grass 
crop  surpasses  in  value  any  other  crop.  But  since  hay 
is  too  bulky  and  usually  too  cheap  to  bear  long-distance 
shipment,  comparatively  a  small  proportion  of  it  finds 
its  way  to  the  markets.  It  is  fortunate  that  at  least 
one  important  crop  must,  from  its  very  nature,  be 
largely  consumed  on  the  land  where  it  is  produced. 
Otherwise  we  should  long  ago  have  reduced  the 
fertility  of  practically  all  the  farm  lands  in  this 
country  to  so  low  a  point  as  to  have  rendered  farm- 
ing unprofitable,  just  as  has  been  done  in  all  the 
older  parts  of  the  country  where  livestock  farming  has 
been  neglected.  It  is  a  notable  fact  that  in  those  por- 
tions of  the  country  which  have  enjoyed  the  most  per- 


THE    GRASS    CROP  3 

manent  prosperity,  the  grasses  and  livestock  have 
always  occupied  an  important  place.  In  the  New  Eng- 
land States,  which  have  felt  keenly  the  competition  of 
the  fertile  lands  of  the  Central  West,  agriculture  has 
been  able  to  maintain  itself  only  by  devoting  the  major 
portion  of  the  improved  land  to  grasses.  Other  crops 
may  form  the  basis  of  temporary  prosperity,  as  has 


FIG.  I — PERCENTAGE  OF  IMPROVED  LAND  DEVOTED 
TO  HAY  AND  FORAGE 

been  the  case  with  wheat  on  the  prairies  of  the  North- 
west and  the  Pacific  Northwest,  and  cotton  in  the 
South;  but  it  was  a  prosperity  that  rested  on  too  slen- 
der a  basis,  and,  in  both  cases,  led  to  disaster. 

The  distribution  of  the  grass  crop  in  the  United 
States  is  shown  in  Fig.  i .  This  shows  the  percentage 
of  improved  land  in  each  State  devoted  to  hay  and 
forage.  The  States  may  be  divided  into  four  fairly 
distinct  groups,  based  on  these  percentages.  The  first 


4  FARM    GRASSES    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES 

group  consists  of  the  cotton-producing  States,  in  which 
the  area  of  grass  lands  is  less  than  5  per  cent,  of  the 
whole.  This  group  of  States  was  so  unfortunate  in 
their  early  history  as  to  find  their  lands  and  climate 
adapted  to  a  crop  that  was  highly  profitable,  but  which 
returned  nothing  to  the  soil.  Livestock  farming  and 
grass  culture  were  almost  wholly  negledled.  As  the 
lands  wore  out,  resort  was  had  to  commercial  fertil- 
izers; but  these  did  not  add  humus  to  the  soil,  and  the 
mechanical  condition  of  the  soil  has  reached  that  stage 
where  rain  washes  it  so  badly  that  it  is  necessary  to 
terrace  in  order  to  keep  the  soil  from  washing  away. 
The  results  achieved  by  many  progressive  farmers  in 
the  South  show  conclusively  that  a  proper  use  of 
grasses  and  stable  manure  render  terracing  unneces- 
sary except  on  decidedly  rolling  lands,  and  make  the 
soil  highly  productive.  Diversified  farming  is  rapidly 
coming  into  favor  in  the  South,  and  the  area  devoted 
to  hay  and  pasture  crops  is  increasing.  This  undoubt- 
edly means  a  return  to  permanent  prosperity. 

Hay  production,  generally  speaking,  is  not  an  im- 
portant industry  in  the  South.  It  has  become  impor- 
tant in  a  few  localities.  In  the  Red  River  Valley  in 
Louisiana  and  Arkansas  a  considerable  area  of  alfalfa 
is  grown,  and  the  area  devoted  to  this  valuable  crop 
is  rapidly  extending.  On  a  narrow  strip  of  prairie 
soil  extending  from  northeastern  Mississippi  through 
central  Alabama  and  terminating  near  Macon,  Georgia, 
Johnson  grass  has  long  been  grown  in  considerable 
areas.  The  same  grass  is  grown  more  or  less  exten- 
sively on  similar  soil  over  much  of  central  Texas. 
Alfalfa  thrives  abundantly  on  these  black  soils,  and  is 


THE    GRASS    CROP  5 

coming  into  general  use  as  a  hay  crop  in  recent  years. 
In  the  vicinity  of  Augusta,  Georgia,  on  both  sides  of 
the  Savannah  River,  considerable  hay  is  grown  for  the 
local  markets.  The  same  is  true  in  restricted  local- 
ities in  northern  Florida.  In  general,  however,  the 
prevailing  system  of  farming  consists  of  growing  cotton 
and  corn.  This  system  has  thoroughly  worn  out  the 
soil  except  in  the  richer  alluvial  sections,  so  that  good 
crops  are  seldom  produced,  even  with  the  stimulus  of 
commercial  fertilizers,  which  are  universally  applied — 
at  least,  to  cotton — in  all  the  older  settled  sections. 

Regarding  the  profit  from  hay  farming  in  the 
South,  Mr.  F.  A.  Quinett,  who  operates  two  large  hay 
farms  near  New  Orleans,  says,  in  a  letter  to  the  Depart- 
ment of  Agriculture:  "  Formerly  we  found  it  difficult 
to  sell  our  hay.  We  now  have  the  best  patronage,  and 
are  unable  to  meet  the  demand.  One  hundred  acres 
last  year  gave  about  four  hundred  tons  of  hay,  which 
we  sold  at  $10  to  $14  per  ton.  We  consider  the  hay 
business  decidedly  more  profitable  than  any  other  style 
of  farming." 

The  next  group  consists  of  the  States  of  Tennessee, 
Kentucky,  and  Virginia.  In  these,  the  grasses  are 
largely  confined  to  certain  localities  ;  in  Virginia,  to 
the  valleys  between  the  mountain  ranges  in  the  west- 
ern part ;  in  Tennessee,  to  the  mountain  valleys  of  the 
east,  and  to  the  limestone  soils  of  the  central  part  of 
the  State;  in  Kentucky,  largely  to  the  northern  border 
and  the  north  central  part.  In  these  three  States  the 
percentage  of  grass-lands  ranges  from  5  to  6.3. 

The  third  group  consists  of  those  States  in  which 
agriculture  is  most  widely  diversified,  and  the  agricul- 


6  FARM    GRASSES    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES 

tural  wealth  of  the  country  is  mostly  concentrated.  In 
them,  from  10  to  25  per  cent,  of  the  improved  land  is 
devoted  to  hay  and  forage  crops.  The  last  group  con- 
sists of  the  Rocky  Mountain  States  and  New  York 
and  New  England.  In  these  States  the  grass  area  ex- 
ceeds 25  per  cent,  of  the  total.  The  large  amount  of 
hay  grown  in  these  two  groups  of  States  is  due  to 
special  conditions.  In  the  Mountain  States  the  chief 
industry  is  stock-raising  on  the  ranges,  and  the  hay  is 
grown  for  winter  feed.  The  proportion  of  grass  to 
other  crops  is  indeed  larger  here  than  is  called  for  in 
properly  diversified  agriculture,  and  there  is  much  talk 
of  the  need  of  grains  for  finishing  off  cattle.  In  New 
York  and  New  England  much  hay  is  grown  for  market. 
Dairying  is  also  an  important  industry.  Unlike  Iowa, 
Wisconsin,  and  other  great  dairy  States  in  the  Central 
West,  where  concentrated  dairy  feeds  are  largely  pro- 
duced on  the  farm,  New  England  finds  it  more  advan- 
tageous to  devote  her  lands  to  grass,  and  to  buy  grain 
and  mill  products  for  her  cattle. 

The  data  concerning  the  hay  and  forage  crops  of 
the  country  are  given  in  Vol.  VI.,  Census  of  1900, 
under  the  following  headings  :  "  Wild,  Salt,  and  Prai- 
rie Grasses,"  "  Millet  and  Hungarian  Grasses,"  "  Al- 
falfa or  Lucern, "  "  Clover,"  "  Other  Tame  Grasses," 
"  Grains  Cut  Green  for  Hay,"  and  "  Forage  Crops." 
The  distribution  of  each  of  these  crops  will  be  dis- 
cussed later.  The  data  for  clover  relate  to  clover  sown 
alone,  and  include  all  the  varieties.  When  sown  with 
timothy  or  other  true  grasses,  clover  is  included  under 
"  other  tame  grasses."  Grains  cut  green  for  hay  here 
includes  peas  as  well,  since,  in  the  North,  peas  are 


THE    GRASS    CROP  7 

usually  sown  with  oats  when  grown  for  hay.  It  also 
includes  the  cow-peas  of  the  South  when  cut  for  hay, 
though  these  are  practically  never  sown  with  grain. 
Under  "  Forage  Crops"  are  included  sorghum,  Kafir- 
corn,  milo  maize,  Indian  corn,  etc.,  when  cut  and  fed  in 
the  green  state,  made  into  silage,  or  when  grown  for  the 
fodder  alone,  as  all  of  these  crops  except  Indian  corn 
and  Kafir-corn  usually  are.  The  two  latter,  when 
grown  for  grain,  are  not  included  here. 

The  crop  designated  ' '  other  tame  grasses  "  is  by 
far  the  most  important  of  all.  It  includes  timothy, 
timothy  and  clover,  redtop,  orchard-grass,  brome-grass, 
meadow- fescue,  tall  meadow  oat-grass,  etc.  There  are 
no  definite  data  to  indicate  in  what  proportion  these 
grasses  occur,  but  common  observation  and  extensive 
correspondence  with  farmers  indicate  that  the  area  of 
all  others  together  is  decidedly  small  when  compared 
with  the  area  of  timothy,  or  a  mixture  of  timothy  and 
clover,  and  we  may  fairly  refer  to  the  region  producing 
this  crop  as  the  "  timothy  region."  Omitting  for  the 
present  the  wild  grasses,  these  hay  crops  will  be  con- 
sidered in  the  order  of  their  importance. 

By  reference  to  the  map  (Fig.  17),  it  will  be  seen 
that  the  crop  designated  as  ( '  other  tame  grasses ' '  oc- 
curs principally  north  of  the  Ohio  River  and  east  of  the 
west  line  of  Missouri  and  Iowa.  The  area  of  this  crop 
is  given  as  31,302,000  acres.  It  therefore  constitutes 
74  per  cent,  of  the  total  area  of  tame  hay.  The  aver- 
age yield  is  i.i  tons  per  acre,  making  a  total  of  35,- 
624,000  tons  of  hay,  consisting  almost  exclusively  of 
timothy,  or  timothy  and  clover.  The  yield  per  acre 
of  this  crop  is  lower  than  that  of  any  other  tame  hay 


8  FARM    GRASSES    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES 

crop.  This  is  largely  due  to  the  prevailing  habit  of 
leaving  timothy  meadows  down  after  they  have  become 
unproductive. 

It  is  a  remarkable  fact  that  nearly  all  the  grass  lit- 
erature issued  by  the  American  experiment  stations 
comes  from  those  stations  outside  of  the  timothy  re- 
gion. Inside  this  region  the  early  introduction  of 
timothy,  red  clover,  and  Kentucky  blue-grass  solved 
the  grass  problem  in  a  manner  satisfactory  to  the  farmer 
before  the  establishment  of  the  experiment  stations, 
and  these  institutions  have,  therefore,  devoted  their 
energies  to  more  pressing  problems.  The  most  im- 
portant grass  literature  from  these  States  is  to  be  found 
in  the  reports  from  early  agricultural  societies.  These 
reports  indicate  that  grass  problems  were  at  one  time 
as  important  in  the  region  in  question  as  they  now  are 
outside  of  it.  Nearly  all  the  correspondence  that 
comes  to  the  office  of  Grass  and  Forage  Plant  Investi- 
gations of  the  United  States  Department  of  Agriculture 
originates  either  in  the  cotton-growing  States,  where 
grass  culture  has  been  neglected,  or  in  the  arid  and 
semi-arid  West,  where  satisfactory  grasses  are  yet  to 
be  found. 

Clover  ranks  next  to  ' '  other  tame  grasses  ' '  in  the 
area  devoted  to  it.  The  figures  apply,  of  course,  to 
the  clovers  when  sown  without  timothy  or  other  true 
grasses.  The  area  devoted  to  clover  is  4, 104,000 
acres,  or  7  per  cent,  of  the  total  area  of  tame  hay. 
The  average  yield  of  this  class  of  crops  is  given  at  1.3 
tons  per  acre.  The  clovers,  particularly  the  common 
red  clover  {Trifolium  pratense),  are  much  more  im- 
portant in  American  agriculture  than  these  figures 


THE    GRASS    CROP  '        9 

would  indicate.  In  the  first  place,  red  clover  is  very 
commonly  sown  with  timothy,  the  area  thus  sown 
probably  being  several  times  as  large  as  the  area  of 
clover  sown  alone.  In  the  second  place,  they  are 
nitrogen  gatherers,  and  are  thus  of  vast  importance  in 
furnishing  nitrogenous  material  in  feed-stuffs  and  as 
soil  renovators.  But  a  further  discussion  of  this  sub- 
ject would  transcend  the  limits  of  this  volume,  which 
is  confined,  except  in  a  most  general  way,  to  a  discus- 
sion of  the  true  grasses. 

The  next  most  important  crop  in  the  list  consists 
of  grains  cut  green  for  hay.  Its  distribution  is  shown 
in  Fig.  2.  The  area  of  this  crop  is  3,884,000  acres, 
and  the  average  yield  1.3  tons.  The  grains  are  used 
extensively  for  hay  only  on  the  Pacific  Coast.  On 
non-irrigated  lands  in  Idaho,  Washington,  Oregon, 
and  California,  where  the  rainfall  is  sufficient  to  per- 
mit of  farming,  wheat  is  by  far  the  most  important 
crop.  Over  much  of  this  area  wild  oats  are  very 
troublesome,  and  the  principal  hay  consists  of  patches 
of  wild  oats  cut  in  wheat-fields.  Even  where  wild  oats 
are  not  troublesome,  as  where  the  rainfall  is  less  than 
about  eighteen  inches  annually,  much  wheat  is  cut  for 
hay.  If  cut  at  the  proper  stage,  wheat,  and  the  other 
cereals  as  well,  make  excellent  hay  for  all  kinds  of 
stock.  In  California  beardless  barley  is  used  exten- 
sively for  hay;  this  crop  is  also  coming  into  use  in 
Oregon  and  Washington  for  the  same  purpose.  Al- 
falfa and  brome-grass  {Bromus  inermis)  are  also  rap- 
idly coming  into  favor  on  the  wheat-lands  east  of  the 
Cascade  Mountains  in  the  two  States  last  named. 

Throughout  the  Central  and  Southern  States  the 


.•**" 


THK    GRASS    CROP  II 

grain  hay  consists  mostly  of  oats  cut  and  fed  in  the 
sheaf,  and  of  cow-peas.  The  thick  patch  of  grain  hay 
shown  in  southern  Louisiana  consists  entirely  of  cow- 
peas  grown  on  sugar  plantations,  both  for  hay  and  for 
their  fertilizing  effedl  on  the  soil.  At  the  North,  Cana- 
dian field  peas  are  sometimes  sown  with  oats  for  hay, 
but  the  area  is  quite  limited.  They  hardly  extend  as 
far  south  as  central  Pennsylvania  and  central  Ohio. 

The  hay  crop  next  in  importance  is  alfalfa,  of 
which  2,094,000  acres  is  reported  in  the  Census  oi 
1900.  This  is  confined  almost  entirely  to  the  West, 
and  largely  to  irrigated  land  in  that  section.  Alfalfa, 
as  an  important  crop,  stops  at  the  western  limit  of 
11  other  tame  grasses,"  as  shown  in  Fig.  17.  It  is  now 
rapidly  gaining  ground  in  the  East  and  South.  The 
average  yield  per  acre  is  2.5  tons — nearly  double  that 
of  any  of  the  preceding  crops. 

Last  in  the  list  of  tame  hay  crops  are  ' c  Millet  and 
Hungarian  grasses. "  Of  these,  1,744,000  acres  are 
shown  in  the  census  returns,  with  an  average  yield  of 
1.6  tons  per  acre.  Their  distribution  is  shown  in  Fig. 
20,  and  the  millet  crop  is  discussed  in  detail  in  Chapter 
VIII. 

The  acreage  of  forage  crops  is  placed  at  3,107,000. 
The  average  yield  of  dry  forage  is  2.6  tons  per  acre. 
Kansas  leads  in  the  production  of  forage.  Sorghum 
and  Kafir-corn  are  eminently  adapted  to  the  western 
margin  of  the  humid  region  ;  sorghum  does  equally 
well  in  the  whole  of  the  cotton-producing  sedlion, 
where  it  is  highly  important  as  a  fodder  crop.  It  is 
also  much  used  in  the  South  as  a  green  feed  for  sum- 
mer and  as  pasture  for  all  kinds  of  stock. 


12         FARM    GRASSES    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES 


The  wild  hay  crop  is  much  more  important  than  is 
generally  believed.  No  less  than  15,417,000  acres  of 
wild  grasses  were  cut  for  hay  during  the  census  year, 
though  the  area  is  rapidly  diminishing.  The  average 
yield  is  i .  i  tons  per  acre,  or  the  same  as  that  given  for 
1 '  other  tame  grasses. ' '  The  distribution  of  the  wild 
ha}'  crop  is  shown  in  Fig.  3.  The  chief  acreage  is 
shown  to  be  in  the  States  bordering  the  western  edge 
of  the  timothy  region.  In  Iowa,  Wisconsin,  and  part 
of  Minnesota,  wild  hay  is  cut  chiefly  on  wet  lands  ; 
farther  west,  mostly  on  upland  prairies  ;  still  farther 
west,  in  swales  and  draws  in  the  arid  region.  The 
principal  grasses  constituting  this  wild  hay,  and  the 
possibility  of  domesticating  some  of  them,  are  men- 
tioned later  in  this  volume. 

RECAPITULATION 

The  following  table  presents  the  statistics  for  hay 
and  forage  crops  in  more  compact  form.  The  figures 
are  from  the  Census  of  1900: 

ACREAGE  OF  HAY  AND  FORAGE 


Acres 

A  verage  yield 
in  tons  per 
acre 

Wild,  salt,  and  prarie  grasses  

15,457,000 

.1 

Millet  and  Hungarian  grasses 

i  744,000 

.6 

Alfalfa,  or  lucern      .       .   .          

2,094,000 

2.5 

Clover 

4  104  ooo 

•3 

Other  tame  and  cultivated  grasses  .... 
O  rains  cut  green  for  hay 

31,302,000 
3  884  ooo 

.1 

.3 

Total 

58  585  ooo 

1.2 

Forage   crops  . 

3  107,000 

2.6 

Grand  total 

6  1  692  ooo 

1.3 

\&' 


II 


MEADOWS    AND     PASTURES 

XCKPT  in  comparatively  few  localities,  the 
American  farmer  has  never  learned  the  art 
of  maintaining  grass-lands  in  a  permanently 
productive  condition.  This  is  partly  due  to 
the  character  of  the  grasses  grown,  and  partly  to  the 
treatment  accorded  grass-lands  in  this  country.  There 
are  only  three  important  hay  and  pasture  plants  com- 
monly grown  in  America  that  naturally  tend  to  in- 
crease in  productiveness  after  the  second  year.  These 
are  alfalfa,  Bermuda  grass,  and  blue-grass  (Poa  pra- 
tensis).  When  any  one  of  these  is  once  established  on 
land  to  which  it  is  thoroughly  adapted,  it  remains 
productive  for  many  years,  if  given  proper  treatment. 
But  such  grasses  as  timothy,  redtop,  brome-grass, 
Johnson  grass,  orchard-grass,  and  tall  oat-grass  all 
decrease  markedly  in  yield  after  the  first  crop  year — at 
least,  with  the  treatment  they  ordinarily  receive. 
Whether  a  meadow  consisting  of  these  grasses  could 
be  maintained  productive  indefinitely  is  doubtful. 

In  the  real  grass-growing  section  of  the  country, 
which  lies  north  of  the  Ohio  and  Potomac  rivers  and 
east  of  Nebraska  and  Kansas,  including  portions  of 
Virginia,  Kentucky,  Kansas,  and  Nebraska,  meadows 
ordinarily  consist  of  timothy  and  red  clover.  The  lat- 
ter plant  has  come  to  be  regarded  as  practically  a  bien- 
14 


MEADOWS    AND    PASTURES  15 

nial.  In  reality  it  is  a  perennial,  capable  of  remain- 
'ing  productive  for  many  years,  but  it  is  subject  to  so 
many  insect  enemies  and  fungous  diseases  that  it  usu- 
ally ceases  to  be  productive  in  one  or  two  years.  On 
the  Pacific  Coast,  where  these  enemies  have  not  yet  be- 
come established,  productive  fields  of  clover  ten  or  fif- 
teen years  old  are  not  uncommon.  As  stated  above, 
timothy  becomes  much  less  productive  after  the  first 
crop-year.  The  American  farmer  has,  therefore,  come 
to  regard  a  meadow  as  a  temporary  thing,  and  there 
has  not  been  much  attempt  to  maintain  such  perma- 
nent grass-lands  as  are  found  in  England  and  the  Con- 
tinent of  Europe. 

Among  our  farmers  the  usual  method  of  procedure 
is  to  sow  timothy  in  the  fall  with  wheat,  adding  clover 
in  February  or  March.  On  account  of  the  presence  of 
the  wheat,  no  grass  crop  is  produced  the  first  year. 
The  next  year  two  crops  of  hay  are  cut,  the  first  con- 
sisting of  mixed  clover  and  timothy,  the  second  almost 
entirely  of  clover.  A  few  of  our  best  farmers  get 
three  crops,  though  many  others  get  only  one.  The 
next  year  one  or  two  smaller  crops  are  cut.  When 
timothy  is  sown  alone,  as  it  frequently  is,  there  is  only 
one  cutting  a  year.  After  the  second  crop-year  any 
one  of  three  courses  is  followed.  A  good  many  farm- 
ers spread  the  available  supply  of  barn-yard  manure  on 
the  meadow  during  the  winter  after  the  second  crop- 
year,  and  in  the  spring  plow  up  the  sod  for  corn.  Some 
continue  to  cut  it  for  hay  till  weeds  compel  them  to 
plow  it  up.  Others  use  it  for  pasture  one,  two,  or 
three  years  before  plowing  it  up  for  corn.  Sometimes 
blue-grass  is  sown  with  the  clover  when  the  meadow  is 


1 6        FARM    GRASSES    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES 

laid  down,  and  the  field  converted  into  more  or  less 
permanent  pasture  after  one  or  two  years'  use  as 
meadow. 

On  account  of  the  usual  low  yield  of  old  meadows 
and  most  old  pastures,  progressive  farmers  maintain 
that  they  cannot  afford  to  keep  lands  permanently  in 
grass.  This  is  particularly  the  case  in  sections  of 
the  country  where  dairying  is  the  leading  feature  of 
farming,  especially  where  land  is  high-priced.  In 
fadl,  there  is  a  tendency  in  some  sedlions  to  dispense 
with  pastures  altogether  on  dairy  farms,  except  for 
the  young  stock,  and  to  substitute  the  system  of 
green  feeding  (soiling)  instead,  because  of  the  greater 
amount  of  feed  that  may  be  obtained  from  the  same 
area  by  this  system  as  compared  with  pasturing. 
Whether  better  results  could  be  obtained  from  per- 
manent or  semi-permanent  grass-lands  by  using  such 
mixtures  as  are  used  in  Europe,  instead  of  depending 
on  timothy  and  clover,  as  our  farmers  do,  is  doubtful, 
for  the  most  highly  prized  European  grasses  do  not 
thrive  well  in  the  Eastern  seclion  of  the  United  States. 
The  most  important  grasses  of  Europe  are  English  and 
Italian  rye-grasses,  meadow-fescue,  timothy,  orchard- 
grass,  and  meadow-foxtail.  Of  these,  timothy  is  the 
only  one  that  can  be  said  to  be  important  in  the  real 
grass-growing  section  of  this  country.  The  rye-grasses 
and  meadow-foxtail  are  entire  failures  (in  our  timothy 
region),  and  orchard-grass  and  meadow-fescue  (here 
called  English  blue-grass)  are  important  only  in  very 
restricted  areas. 

Much  has  been  written  concerning  the  care  of 
meadows  in  this  country,  a  good  deal  of  it  copied  from 


MEADOWS    AND    PASTURES  If 

European  authorities.  With  our  conditions,  about  the 
best  treatment  seems  to  be  to  plow  up  the  meadow  for 
corn  at  the  end  of  the  second  year.  Where  the  pasture 
is  needed,  as  it  certainly  is  011  beef-producing  farms, 
the  old  meadows  may  well  be  used  for  pasture  a  year 
or  two  before  plowing  up  for  corn.  Where  the  ma- 
nure is  available,  it  is  good  practice  to  top-dress  the 
meadow  each  winter  after  the  last  crop  of  hay  is  re- 
moved in  the  fall. 

Instead  of  sowing  the  timothy  in  the  fall  with 
wheat,  and  adding  the  clover  in  spring,  it  is  much  bet- 
ter, in  most  parts  of  the  Timothy  Region,  to  sow  the 
timothy  and  clover  together  late  in  August  or  early  in 
September,  on  well-prepared  and  well-manured  land, 
without  a  so-called  nurse  crop  of  wheat  or  other  grain. 
This  will  give  a  heavy  yield  of  hay  the  next  summer. 
After  this  hay  crop  is  removed,  top-dress  well  the  next 
winter,  and  cut  for  hay  again  the  next  summer.  After 
this,  top-dress  in  winter  and  plow  in  spring  for  corn. 
This  applies  to  good  arable  land  in  those  parts  of  the 
country  where  timothy  and  clover  thrive,  and  where 
corn  is  a  paying  crop.  Such  a  plan,  of  course,  presup- 
poses an  abundance  of  manure.  It  is  recognized  that 
there  is  much  land  well  adapted  to  meadow  purposes, 
but  not  adapted  to  other  ordinary  crops.  In  certain 
sections  also  blue-grass  is  so  highly  productive  that  it 
pays  to  sow  blue-grass  with  the  timothy  and  clover, 
and  make  a  pasture  of  the  meadow  after  the  second- 
crop  year.  (See  chapters  on  timothy  and  blue-grass. ) 
There  is  also  a  great  deal  of  land  unfit  for  cultivation 
which,  with  proper  attention,  may  be  rendered  fairly 
productive  as  pasture,  It  is  therefore  important  to 


1 8         FARM    GRASSES    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES 

consider  the  best  methods  of  handling  such  lands  in 
order  to  keep  the  grass  in  the  most  productive  con- 
dition. The  methods  to  be  employed  in  any  particu- 
lar locality  depend,  of  course,  on  the  nature  of  the 
grasses  best  adapted  to  that  locality.  Much  that 
might  be  said  here  is  therefore  deferred  to  later  chap- 
ters, in  which  the  grasses  are  discussed  individually, 
and  in  which  the  treatment  to  be  accorded  each  partic- 
ular species  is  set  forth  in  detail. 

PREPARATION   OF   THE   SEED-BED 

When  timothy  is  sown  in  the  fall  with  wheat,  and 
clover  added  in  the  spring,  as  is  usually  done  in  the 
timothy  region  proper,  little  need  be  said  regarding 
the  preparation  of  the  seed-bed.  Wheat,  in  the  region 
in  question,  usually  follows  either  oats  or  corn.  When 
it  follows  oats  it  is  well  to  plow  under  a  light  dressing 
of  barn-yard  manure  in  preparing  for  the  wheat  and 
grass  crop.  It  is  important  that  the  land  be  plowed 
when  it  is  in  "  good  season,"  as  Southern  farmers  say; 
that  is,  when  it  has  just  moisture  enough  in  it  to  pul- 
verize nicely.  In  fact,  the  breaking  of  land  should 
always  be  done  when  it  is  in  this  condition,  but  this  is, 
of  course,  not  always  possible.  The  harrow  should  be 
used  freely,  so  that  a  fine  tilth  may  be  secured  before 
the  seeding  is  done.  The  manure  gives  the  timothy 
and  clover  a  good  start,  and  the  fine  tilth  renders  a 
catch  of  timothy  much  more  certain. 

When  wheat  and  timothy  follow  corn,  it  is  usually 
sufficient  to  disk  the  corn-stubble  a  couple  of  times 
after  the  corn  is  in  the  shock,  unless  the  land  is  foul. 
It  is  to  be  presumed  that  the  corn-land  had  a  good 


MEADOWS    AND    PASTURES  19 

dressing  of  manure  the  previous  winter  or  spring,  in 
which  case  it  is  hardly  necessary  to  manure  again  at 
this  stage.  Where  there  is  a  deficiency  of  manure, 
as  in  some  parts  of  the  East,  a  dressing  of  phosphate 
is  usually  applied  to  the  land  and  harrowed  in  just  be- 
fore the  wheat  is  sown,  or  even  with  the  wheat. 

As  elsewhere  stated,  it  is  better  practice  to  sow 
timothy  and  clover  alone  in  the  late  summer  or  early 
fall.  Oat-stubble  is  well  suited  for  this  purpose,  espe- 
cially in  the  northern  tier  of  States.  In  the  region  of 
the  Ohio  River  it  is  possible  to  grow  a  catch  crop  in 
summer,  such  as  millet  or  cow-peas,  before  seeding  to 
grass  in  the  fall.  In  either  case  it  is  a  good  plan  to 
manure  the  land,  the  quantity  required  depending  on 
the  fertility  of  the  soil  before  breaking  up  for  grass. 
Plowing  done  at  this  season  should  be  fairly  deep — say, 
seven  to  nine  inches.  It  is  highly  important  to  secure 
a  good  tilth  before  sowing  the  grass-seed.  If  the  soil 
is  inclined  to  be  stiff,  as  most  clay  soils  are,  the  disk- 
harrow  is  a  very  useful  implement  in  putting  it  in  shape 
for  sowing.  On  loose  soils  the  common  drag-harrow  is 
sufficient.  In  the  Middle  South,  where  orchard -grass, 
redtop,  tall  meadow  oat-grass,  and  meadow-fescue 
partially  replace  timothy,  more  care  is  required  in  pre- 
paring grass-lands  than  in  most  other  parts  of  the 
country.  Here  much  of  the  soil  has  been  exhausted 
by  the  continuous  cultivation  of  cotton  and  corn,  and 
barn-yard  manure  is  frequently  not  available.  The 
practice  of  subsoiling  has  become  very  general  in  this 
section. 

The  usual  manner  of  subsoiling  is  to  run  a 
" scooter*'  in  the  furrow  behind  the  turning-plow. 


20        FARM    GRASSES    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES 

The  scooter-plow  is  unknown  at  the  North.  It  is  a 
kind  of  shovel-plow  having  an  oblique  point.  It  digs 
up  the  clay,  butleaves  it  in  the  furrow.  A  great  deal 
of  time  and  labor  is  wasted  in  this  manner  in  northern 
Georgia,  northern  Alabama,  and  adjacent  sections.  It 
is  argued  that  if  this  subsoil  were  turned  up  and  mixed 
with  the  soil  it  would  gr.eat.ly  reduce  the  yield,  which 
is  very  true.  The  idea  is  to  break  up  the  hard-pan 
which  has  been  formed  just  below  the  furrow  slice. 
But  this  can  be  done  in  a  far  better  way.  By  plowing 
one  inch  deeper  every  year  till  a  depth  of  ten  inches  is 
reached,  a  ten-inch  layer  of  good  surface  soil  is  secured 
without  at  any  time  having  a  lot  of  unproductive  hard- 
pan  mixed  with  the  soil.  After  this  depth  has  been 
reached  it  is  a  good  plan  never  to  plow  the  same  depth 
two  years  in  succession.  Plow,  say,  seven  inches  the 
next  year,  then  nine  inches  the  next,  then  six,  then 
ten,  then  eight,  and  so  on.  If  this  practice  is  followed 
there  will  be  no  hard-pan  to  break  up.  There  are 
many  farms  on  which  all  the  plowing  must  be  done  by 
one  small  mule.  Ten-inch  plowing  is,  of  course,  out 
of  the  question  in  such  cases. 

The  preparation  of  good  alluvial  soil  for  grass  in 
the  Middle  South  does  not  differ  materially  from  the 
methods  required  in  the  North,  but  the  uplands  re- 
quire considerably  more  care.  It  is  useless  to  attempt 
to  grow  meadow-grasses  on  exhausted  upland  soils  in 
the  Middle  South.  The  soil  must  first  be  brought 
into  good  heart.  This  may  be  done  by  sowing  Southern 
grown  winter  rye  and  turning  it  under  about  the  time  it 
heads  out,  and  by  growing  and  turning  under  cow-peas 
or  velvet  beans.  It  is  very  important,  when  any  heavy 


MEADOWS    AND    PASTURES  21 

green  crop  has  been  turned  under,  to  allow  it  to  decay, 
and  let  one  or  two  good,  soaking  rains  wash  the  re- 
sulting acids  out  of  the  soil  before  sowing  any  other 
crop.  A  very  good  preparation  for  worn  upland  soils 
would  be  to  turn  under  a  crop  of  rye,  let  the  land  lie 
six  weeks,  then  sow  cow-peas.  Cut  the  peas  for  hay 
in  time  to  sow  rye  again  in  the  fall.  Turn  rye  under 
again  the  next  spring,  and  grow  another  crop  of  peas. 
By  the  time  this  second  crop  of  peas  is  cut  for  hay  the 
land  ought  to  be  in  fairly  good  condition  to  receive  a 
grass  crop. 

For  the  particular  condition  here  described  the  best 
grasses  are  orchard-grass,  redtop,  tall  meadow  oat- 
grass,  and  meadow-fescue,  with  red  and  alsike  clover. 
On  most  of  these  soils,  except  where  rock  is  near  the 
surface,  alfalfa  can  be  started  readily  after  the  above 
course  of  treatment.  A  very  good  combination  would 
be  :  orchard-grass,  10  Ibs. ;  redtop,  5  Ibs.  of  recleaned 
seed,  or  12  Ibs.  of  seed  in  the  chaff;  tall  meadow  oat- 
grass,  12  Ibs.;  red  clover,  8  Ibs.;  and  alsike  clover, 
4  Ibs.  In  the  absence  of  barn-yard  manure,  a  dressing  of 
200  to  400  Ibs.  of  a  high-grade,  complete  fertilizer  would 
give  the  grass  a  good  start.  After  this  grass  has  been 
down  two  years,  during  which  time  it  ought  to  give 
two  cuttings  a  year,  it  should  be  manured  and  plowed 
up  for  corn.  The  corn  may  be  followed  by  rye  or 
wheat  the  next  winter.  Cow-peas  may  advantageously 
follow  the  grain  crop,  and  give  way  to  the  grass  crop 
again  in  the  fall.  This  makes  a  four-year  rotation, 
which  keeps  the  land  busy  winter  and  summer.  If  all 
these  crops  are  fed  on  the  place  and  the  manure  re- 
turned to  the  land,  this  system  of  cropping  cannot  fail 


22         FARM    GRASSES    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES 

to  bring  the  soil  to  a  high  state  of  fertility  in  a  few 
years. 

We  may  summarize  the  sub j  eel  of  preparation  of 
land  for  grass  by  saying  that  it  must  first  be  made 
fairly  fertile  if  it  is  not  already  so,  and  that  it  must  be 
plowed  deep  when  in  condition  to  pulverize  well,  and 
then  be  thoroughly  fined  by  the  harrow.  It  is  then 
ready  for  the  seed. 

SOWING  THE  SEED 

The  importance  of  good  seed  can  hardly  be  over- 
estimated. In  the  chapter  on  seeds  the  prevalence  of 
poor  grass-seed  on  the  markets  and  some  of  the  rea- 
sons for  the  same  are  pointed  out.  A  good  many 
failures  in  seeding  down  the  grasses  result  from  insuf- 
ficient preparation  of  the  land,  but  many  failures  result 
also  from  the  use  of  seed  which  for  one  reason  or 
another  has  lost  much,  or  all,  of  its  vitality.  This  is 
about  the  only  civilized  country  in  the  world  in  which 
there  are  no  laws  to  protect  the  farmer  against  imposi- 
tion on  the  part  of  dishonest  seedsmen,  and  honest 
seedsmen  find  much  difficulty  in  selling  high-class 
seed  alongside  of  dead  seed,  which  is  offered  at  a  low 
price.  A  farmer  ought  always  to  buy  grass-seed  far 
enough  in  advance  to  enable  him  to  send  a  sample  of 
it  to  the  seed  laboratory  of  his  State  experiment  sta- 
tion, if  the  station  maintains  one,  or  to  that  of  the 
United  States  Department  of  Agriculture,  which  is 
always  ready  to  test  such  seeds  free  of  charge.  If  this 
practice  were  general,  bad  seed  would  be  less  plentiful 
on  the  market,  and  there  would  be  fewer  failures  when 
grasses  are  sown.  The  danger  from  bad  seed  is  much 


MEADOWS    AND    PASTURES  23 

greater  in  the  case  of  such  grasses  as  tall  meadow  oat- 
grass,  meadow- fescue,  Italian  rye-grass,  and  the  like, 
which  are  so  little  used  in  this  country.  The  stock  is 
liable  to  be  old,  and  such  seeds  should  always  be  tested 
before  risking  good  land  to  them.  The  same  is  true 
of  blue-grass,  Johnson,  and  Bermuda  grasses,  which 
are  especially  liable  to  be  of  poor  quality. 

The  rate  at  which  the  various  grass-seeds  are  to  be 
sown  is  given  in  discussing  the  individual  grasses  later 
in  this  volume.  When  mixtures  are  sown,  a  number 
of  considerations  govern  the  amount  of  each  kind  of 
seed  to  use.  In  sowing  grasses  and  clovers  together 
it  is  customary  to  sow  enough  of  both  grass-seed  and 
clover-seed  for  a  full  stand.  But  if  several  grasses 
are  used  in  the  mixture,  the  amount  of  each  is  usually 
somewhat  reduced.  In  parts  of  the  Timothy  Region  it 
is  customary  to  add  more  or  less  redtop  to  the  timothy 
and  clover  (except  when  the  hay  is  grown  for  sale), 
but  the  amount  of  timothy-seed  is  not  thereby  reduced. 
The  amount  of  each  kind  of  seed  to  be  used  depends 
partly  on  how  much  of  each  kind  of  grass  is  desired 
in  the  hay.  Redtop  is  usually  added  as  a  "  filler,"  to 
increase  the  yield,  rather  than  because  of  its  desirabil- 
ity in  the  hay,  and  hence  the  proportion  of  its  seed  is 
usually  small.  In  the  mixture  above  recommended  for 
uplands  in  the  Middle  South,  the  amount  of  orchard- 
grass  is  about  half  what  would  be  sown  if  this  were 
the  only  grass  to  be  sown  with  the  clovers.  The 
amount  of  redtop  is  about  one-fourth,  and  that  of  tall 
meadow  oat-grass  about  one-third  of  a  full  seeding. 

Some  authorities  recommend  that  nearly  as  much 
of  each  kind  of  seed  be  used  in  a  mixture  as  if  it  were 


24        FARM    GRASSES    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES 

to  be  sown  alone,  and  this  is  a  very  good  rule  if  one  is 
not  sure  of  the  quality  of  the  seed.  A  general  rule, 
but  one  that  should  seldom  be  applied  strictly,  is  to 
reduce  the  amount  of  each  kind  of  seed  in  proportion 
to  the  number  of  kinds  in  the  mixture.  This  rule 
should  be  used  with  much  caution,  yet  it  is  a  guide  of 
some  value.  If  more  or  less  of  a  given  grass  is  wanted 
in  the  mixture,  use  its  seed  accordingly,  and  always 
make  sure  of  sufficient  seed  of  the  best  grasses  in  the 
mixture  to  secure  a  stand  if  the  less  important  kinds 
should  fail  entirely.  An  indefinite  number -of  mix- 
tures could  be  given  as  samples,  but  it  would  occupy 
more  space  than  can  be  devoted  to  it  in  this  volume  to 
give  the  total  number  of  such  that  might  be  used  under 
varying  conditions  in  the  various  parts  of  the  country. 
Seedsmen  usually  make  recommendations  on  this  point 
in  their  catalogues,  but  such  recommendations  cannot 
be  followed  implicitly. 

Other  things  being  equal,  rich  land  requires  more 
seed  than  poor  land,  and  wet  land  more  than  dry.  A 
well-prepared  seed-bed  requires  less  seed  than  one 
poorly  prepared,  because  a  larger  proportion  of  the 
seed  finds  a  chance  to  germinate.  A  single  pound  of 
timothy-seed  to  the  acre,  if  every  seed  produced  a 
thrifty  plant,  would  give  27  plants  on  every  square 
foot  of  land.  Since  it  usually  requires  12  to  15  Ibs. 
of  timothy  to  secure  a  good  stand  it  is  evident  that  only 
a  small  proportion  of  the  seed  sown  on  even  the  best- 
prepared  land  produce  plants.  On  rough,  cloddy  land 
the  proportion  is  much  smaller.  Seedsmen,  in  their 
recommendations  as  to  the  amounts  to  sow,  make  a 
good  deal  of  allowance  for  poorly  prepared  land,  and 


MEADOWS    AND    PASTURES  25 

it  is  well  they  do,  or  there  would  be  more  failures  than 
there  are. 

From  the  above  it  is  evident  that  no  absolute  rules 
can  be  laid  down  for  determining  the  amount  of  seed 
to  sow  on  an  acre  of  land.  One  must  consider  all 
the  circumstances  and  be  governed  accordingly.  A 
beginner  will  do  well  to  consult  the  experience  of 
those  who  have  farmed  in  his  locality  for  many  years. 
In  case  such  experience  is  not  available,  use  a  liberal 
allowance  of  seed  until  experience  has  taught  the 
proper  rate  of  seeding.  As  much  definite  information, 
based  on  farm  experience,  is  given  in  later  chapters  as 
can  be  given  on  this  point. 


Ill 

MEADOWS   AND    PASTURES   (Continued) 
TIME  TO  SOW 

GOOD  seed-bed  is  more  important  than  the  par- 
ticular date  of  sowing.  It  is  unwise  to  sow 
grass-seed  on  soil  that  is  too  dry  to  give  the 
grass  a  quick  start.  Ground  that  is  at  all 
weedy  should  never  be  sown  in  late  spring,  or  weeds 
will  choke  out  the  grass.  Over  most  parts  of  the 
Eastern  United  States  grass- seed  may  be  sown  either 
in  early  fall  or  in  very  early  spring.  Fall  sowing 
should  be  early  enough  to  give  the  grass  a  good  start 
before  winter.  In  sedlions  subject  to  late  summer 
drouth  it  should  be  so  timed  as  to  escape  the  dry,  hot 
weather.  Spring  sowing  should  be  early  enough  to 
give  the  grass  a  start  ahead  of  weeds.  In  middle 
latitudes  most  grasses  and  clovers  -may  be  safely  sown 
on  a  light  snow  in  late  winter.  When  the  snow  melts 
the  seed  will  be  sufficiently  covered  by  the  shifting  of 
soil  due  to  the  water  formed  from  the  melting  snow. 
Perhaps  the  safest  general  rule,  to  be  used  with  judg- 
ment, is  to  sow  in  early  fall  if  the  season  is  favor- 
able. If  not,  then  sow  in  early  spring.  Some  kinds 
of  seeds  produce  plants  that  are  especially  tender  when 
young.  This  is  more  generally  true  of  alfalfa  and 
clover  than  of  the  grasses.  North  of  the  Ohio  River 
it  is  safer  to  sow  these  in  spring,  while  farther  south 
26 


MEADOWS    AND    PASTURES  27 

they  are  best  sown  in  early  fall.  Yet  in  the  North  all 
these  plants  may  be  successfully  sown  in  late  summer 
if  the  soil  is  in  good  condition.  L,ate  fall  sowing  is 
seldom  advisable,  for  it  is  unsafe  to  let  a  meadow  of 
any  except  the  hardiest  grasses  go  into  winter  without 
a  good  covering  on  it.  In  the  colder  regions  of  the 
Prairie  States  it  is  well  to  plow  the  land  in  fall,  then 
prepare  it,  and  sow  the  seed  in  early  spring.  In  the 
Pacific  Northwest,  on  upland  prairies  east  of  the  Cas- 
cade Mountains,  it  is  best  to  plow  in  spring  and  sow 
the  seed  at  once.  The  reasons  for  this  are  given  in  the 
chapter  on  timothy.  In  the  irrigated  districts  of  this 
section  fall  sowing  is  advisable,  while  west  of  the  Cas- 
cades the  same  rules  apply  as  in  Ohio,  Pennsylvania, 
and  adjacent  States.  At  high  altitudes  in  the  Rockies 

spring  sowing  is  safest  because  of  the  cold  winters. 

• 

MANNER   OF  SOWING 

Very  light,  chaffy  seeds,  such  as  those  of  brome- 
grass,  especially  the  imported  seed,  and  awned  seeds, 
such  as  those  of  tall  meadow  oat-grass,  do  not  feed 
through  seeding-machines  satisfactorily,  and  should, 
therefore,  be  sown  by  hand.  Hand-sowing  should  al- 
ways be  done  when  the  air  is  as  still  as  possible.  It  is 
well-nigh  impossible  to  distribute  the  seed  evenly  when 
the  wind  is  blowing.  Unless  the  sower  is  decidedly 
expert,  it  is  best  to  sow  half  of  the  seed  at  a  time, 
making  the  second  sowing  crosswise  to  the  first.  This 
insures  a  more  even  stand. ' 

For  such  seeds  as  will  feed  through  it,  such  as  tim- 
othy, redtop  (recleaned),  clovers,  etc.,  in  general,  for 
small,  round,  clean  seeds,  the  wheelbarrow-seeder  is 


28         FARM    GRASSES    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES 

the  most  satisfactory  implement  yet  invented.  Re- 
cleaned  blue-grass  seed  can  be  sown  with  this  imple- 
ment, but  the  uncleaned  seed  should  be  sown  by  hand. 
Grass-seeders  are  frequently  attached  to  grain-drills. 
They  answer  very  well  for  timothy  to  be  sown  with 
grain,  but  are  hard  to  keep  in  order.  There  are  sev- 
eral cheap  grass-seeding  machines  which  scatter  the 
seed  by  mechanical  means.  They  are  satisfactory  for 
seeds  that  feed  through  them  readily,  but  it  requires 
some  patience  to  regulate  them  properly,  and  the  sower 
must  walk  at  a  uniform  rate  or  the  seed  will  not  be 
scattered  evenly. 

Seeds  of  approximately  the  same  size  and  weight 
may  be  mixed  before  sowing.  Very  large  seeds  should 
never  be  mixed  with  small  ones,  or  the  small  seed  will 
feed  out  first.  If  heavy  seeds  are  mixed  with  light  ones, 
even  of  the  same  size,  the  heavy  ones  will  feed  out  first 
unless  the  mixture  is  kept  well  stirred.  In  sowing 
such  mixtures  it  is  well  to  put  only  a  small  amount  of 
seed  in  the  machine  at  a  time.  By  this  means  the 
separation  of  the  heavy  and  light  seeds-  is  largely 
avoided. 

NURSE   CROP 

Just  why  wheat  or  other  grain  sown  with  the 
grasses  should  be  called  a  nurse  crop  is  not  clear.  It 
would  be  more  appropriate  to  call  it  a  robber  crop. 
The  idea  that  it  protedls  the  grass  probably  arose  from 
the  fadl  that,  when  the  grain  is  removed  in  hot,  dry 
weather,  the  grasses  are  apt  to  dry  up.  Having  been 
shaded  and  weakened  by  the  grain,  they  are  unable  to 
bear  the  full  heat  of  the  sun,  particularly  when  the 
supply  of  moisture  is  short  and  the  grain  crop  has 


MEADOWS    AND    PASTURES  2Q 

robbed  them  of  their  scant  supply.  In  no  part  of  the 
country  is  it  a  safe  plan  to  use  a  so-called  nurse 
crop  for  the  grasses,  except,  perhaps,  in  parts  of  the 
North,  where  weeds  are  liable  to  take  spring  seeding. 
In  this  case  a  light  seeding  of  oats  or  barley  will  tend 
to  keep  down  the  weeds,  and  will  not  seriously  harm 
the  grass  if  the  grain  is  cut  for  hay  while  .yet  green. 
If  left  to  ripen  it  is  liable  to  do  the  grass  harm.  In 
the  South  a  nurse  crop  should  never  be  used. 

The  idea  is  prevalent  that  a  crop  can  be  gained  by 
sowing  grain  with  the  grasses.  This  may  be  true  of 
spring  seeding,  but  it  is  not  true  of  fall  seeding.  Fall- 
sown  grasses  without  a  nurse  crop  make  their  largest 
yield  the  next  summer;  with  a  nurse  crop,  they  usu- 
ally make  no  hay  till  the  second  summer. 

COVERING   THE   SEED 

Seeds  sown  on  other  crops  in  late  winter  or  early 
spring  usually  need  no  covering.  At  other  times  a 
light  drag-harrow  or  a  brush  does  the  work  well. 
Soils  that  are  loose  or  inclined  to  be  cloddy  should  be 
rolled  after  seeding,  but  the  harrow  should  follow 
immediately  after  the  roller.  On  clay  soils  particu- 
larly the  roller  has  a  tendency  to  cause  the  surface  to 
bake  and  form  a  hard  crust,  through  which  the  young 
plants  cannot  penetrate.  A  good  rain  just  after  seed- 
ing frequently  covers  the  seed  sufficiently.  It  is  im- 
portant not  to  disturb  the  soil  while  the  seeds  are 
germinating,  as  the  little  plants  are  very  easily  de- 
stroyed at  this  time.  No  attempt  should  therefore  be 
made  to  remedy  insufficient  covering  after  the  seed 
have  begun  to  germinate. 


30        FARM    GRASSES    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES 

Large  seeds,  such  as  those  of  brome-grass,  Johnson 
grass,  etc.,  may  be  covered  more  deeply  than  such 
small  seeds  as  blue-grass,  timothy,  and  the  clovers. 
These  larger  seeds  may  safely  be  put  down  with  a 
drill.  In  light  soils  seeds  as  small  as  clover  may  be 
sown  with  a  drill.  On  ordinary  soils  two  inches  is 
deep  enough  to  cover  large  grass-seed,  while  half  an 
inch  is  deep  enough  for  timothy  and  clover  and  other 
small  seeds. 

STAGE   AT   WHICH   TO   CUT   GRASS   FOR   HAY 

The  proper  stage  at  which  the  grasses  should  be 
cut  for  hay  has  been  the  sub j eel:  of  much  investigation 
on  the  part  of  agricultural  chemists.  The  general  con- 
clusion to  which  these  investigations  have  led  is  thus 
stated  by  one  of  our  most  eminent  investigators : 
' l  Young  plants  while  rapidly  growing  contain  rela- 
tively more  protein  and  less  fibre  than  more  mature 
ones;  consequently,  early  cut  fodder  must  be  of  better 
quality  than  that  cut  late.  It  is  more  digestible." 
We  have  here  three  facts  and  one  inference.  As  the 
point  is  one  of  much  practical  importance,  we  will 
consider  it  at  length.  First,  the  facts  are: 

A.  Young,  growing  plants  contain  relatively  more 
protein  than  mature  ones. 

B.  They  also  contain  less  fibre. 

C.  They  are  more  digestible. 

The  inference  from  these  facts  is:  Early  cut  fodder 
is  of  better  quality  than  that  cut  late.  Is  this  infer- 
ence justified  ?  Concerning  the  first  fact,  it  may  be 
stated  that  we  do  not  grow  the  ordinary  grasses  for 
the  protein  they  contain,  and  the  fact  that  mature 


MEADOWS    AND    PASTURES  31 

grasses  have  a  smaller  percentage  of  it  than  immature 
ones  is  a  matter  of  small  importance.  We  can  get 
portein  more  cheaply  than  by  cutting  immature  grasses 
for  it,  when  by  doing  so  we  lose  considerably  in  yield 
and,  perhaps,  also  in  palatability.  Especially  in  the 
South  and  the  Far  West,  where  the  ordinary  feeds  are 
too  rich  in  protein,  is  this  conclusion  not  well  founded. 
Even  in  the  Timothy  Region  proper  we  can  get  protein 
in  a  more  satisfactory  way. 

The  second  and  third  facts  (B  and  C  above)  are 
closely  related,  and  may  be  considered  together.  Care- 
ful digestion  experiments  are  not  sufficiently  numerous 
to  show  definitely  that  timothy  cut,  say,  when  the  seed 
are  in  the  dough  stage,  is  decidedly  less  digestible  than 
when  cut,  say,  just  before  bloom.  But  grant  that 
there  is  a  difference;  is  it  sufficient  to  compensate  for 
the  smaller  yield  and  lower  palatability  of  the  early 
cut  hay  ? 

The  fact  is  that  old,  experienced  feeders  and  hay 
dealers  almost  invariably  prefer  timothy  hay  that  has 
been  cut  after  the  seed  is  pretty  well  formed.  They 
insist  that  stock  like  it  better,  and  that  it  is  a  stronger 
feed  than  hay  cut  earlier.  There  is  a  possibility  that 
investigators  have  paid  too  little  attention  to  one  of 
the  most,  if  not  the  most,  important  factors  in  deter- 
mining the  value  of  a  given  feed — namely,  its  palata- 
bility. Considering  the  comparatively  small  variation 
in  the  chemical  composition  of  the  same  grass  cut  at 
different  stages,  the  most  important  question  is  not 
how  nutritious  is  a  pound  of  it,  but  how  much  of  it 
will  an  animal  eat.  We  are  all  well  aware  that  a  feed 
has  little  value  in  most  cases  if  stock  will  eat  it  only 


32         FARM    GRASSES    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES 

when  driven  to  do  so  from  hunger.  It  is  that  which 
is  eaten  over  and  above  a  maintenance  ration  which  is 
of  real  value  both  for  work  and  for  animal  products. 
Is  it  not  better  to  cut  hay  at  the  stage  when  it  will  be 
most  readily  eaten,  and  then  balance  up  the  ration  by 
a  judicious  combination  of  feeds  of  different  composi- 
tions? The  writer  believes  this  to  be  the  case,  and 
what  is  said  below  is  based  largely  on  the  assumption 
that  the  best  stage  at  which  any  grass  should  be  cut  is 
determined  largely  by  palatability  and  yield. 

There  is  yet  another  factor  which  is  really  more 
important  than  the  variations  in  chemical  composition, 
and  that  is  the  effect  on  the  digestive  organs.  Grasses 
cut  very  green  are  laxative  in  character,  while  those 
cut  ripe  tend  to  produce  constipation,  and  this  is  some- 
times the  determining  factor  in  cutting  hay.  In  prac- 
tice, therefore,  the  factors  which  determine  the  stage 
at  which  a  grass  should  be  cut  for  hay  are  yield,  pal- 
atability, and  effect  on  the  bowels.  In  particular  in- 
stances considerations  which  are  ordinarily  minor  ones 
become  important.  In  the  case  of  Johnson  grass  and 
wild  oats,  for  instance,  both  of  which  are  vile  weeds, 
yet  excellent  hay  when  cut  at  the  proper  stage,  it  is  of 
the  utmost  importance  to  cut  the  hay  before  any  seeds 
are  mature  enough  to  germinate.  In  this  case  all 
other  considerations  vanish.  If  the  weather  or  the 
pressure  of  other  work  never  interfered  with  haymak- 
ing, these  two  plants  would  undoubtedly  be  highly 
valued  and  standard  crops,  for  they  could  then  be  cut 
at  a  stage  which  would  prevent  them  from  scattering 
by  seed.  Johnson  grass  presents  another  peculiarity 
of  some  importance.  It  yields  three  crops  a  year  or- 


MEADOWS    AND    PASTURES  33 

dinarily.  The  second  and  third  crops  come  on  evenly, 
so  that  all  the  grass  is  pradtically  at  the  same  stage 
when  cut ;  but  the  first  crop  is  liable  to  be  very  irreg- 
ular, and  much  of  it  will  therefore  have  to  be  cut  be- 
fore it  heads  out  in  order  to  avoid  ripe  seed  in  the  more 
advanced  plants.  The  time  to  cut  this  grass  is  when 
the  earliest  portions  of  the  field  begin  to  bloom.  Wild 
oats  should  also  be  cut  while  in  bloom.  In  the  case  of 
timothy  and  most  common  grasses  we  are  not  bothered 
with  weedy  character,  and  can  therefore  give  our  whole 
attention  to  the  quality  and  yield  of  hay. 

Horses  prefer  timothy  cut  when  the  seed  is  well 
formed  but  not  fully  ripe.  As  this  class  of  stock  is 
unfavorably  affedled  by  laxative  feeds,  late  cut  tim- 
othy is  also  preferred  for  them  on  account  of  its  favor- 
able effecl  on  the  digestive  tract.  In  the  case  of  cattle, 
laxative  feed  is  rather  to  be  preferred.  Cattle  also 
relish  timothy  better  when  it  is  cut  rather  green. 
Hence,  for  cattle,  timothy  should  be  cut  about  the 
time  it  is  in  blossom.  Any  time  from  a  day  or  two 
before  the  l '  first  bloom  ' '  till  a  day  or  two  after  the 
"  second  bloom  "  will  answer.  (For  the  meaning  of 
first  and  second  bloom,  see  Chapter  VI.)  The  yield 
will  be  slightly  larger  at  the  later  stage. 

Orchard-grass  loses  its  palatability  very  rapidly 
after  blooming,  and  should  always  be  cut  within  a  day 
or  two  after  the  blooming  period  is  past.  Brome-grass, 
which  is  becoming  an  important  grass  in  this  country, 
retains  its  palatability  until  the  seed  is-  dead  ripe. 
Even  the  straw  from  which  the  ripe  seed  has  been 
threshed  is  eaten  readily  by  both  cattle  and  horses.  It 
therefore  has  a  considerable  season  during  which  it 


34         FARM    GRASSES    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES 

may  be  cut  for  hay.  The  same  is  true  of  blue-grass, 
Bermuda  grass,  and  Italian  rye-grass.  There  is  doubt- 
less a  best  time  to  cut  each  of  these,  but  that  depends 
on  yield  mostly.  In  the  case  of  grasses  that  yield  a 
second  cutting,  like  the  last  two  mentioned,  the  earlier 
the  first  cutting  is  made  the  larger  the  yield  of  the 
second  cutting  will  be. 

The  time  of  cutting  of  other  grasses  is  discussed  in 
sufficient  detail  in  later  chapters. 

CURING   HAY 

The  best  hay  is  made  without  rain  and  with  the 
least  possible  sunshine.  If  it  were  practicable  to  cure 
hay  in  the  shade,  the  quality  would  be  all  the  better. 
The  curing  of  hay  is  a  process  of  drying  and  of  fer- 
mentation. Hot  sun  tends  to  stop  the  fermentations 
which  produce  hay  of  good  flavor.  It  is  important, 
therefore,  to  rake  the  hay  into  windrows  as  soon  as  it 
can  safely  be  done.  When  the  growth  is  light,  as  is 
usually  the  case  with  such  grasses  as  blue-grass  and 
redtop,  and  frequently  with  Bermuda  grass,  it  may 
be  raked  up  within  two  hours  after  cutting,  provid- 
ing, of  course,  the  weather  is  dry.  Heavier  growths 
require  a  longer  time,  sometimes  one  or  two  days, 
and  frequently  the  use  of  a  tedder  is  necessary  to 
dry  out  a  heavy  growth  of  hay  evenly,  so  that  the 
upper  portion  of  the  swath  may  not  become  sun-baked 
and  dead  while  the  under  portion  is  still  fresh  and 
green. 

When  any  given  process  can  be  reduced  to  definite 
rules,  such  rules  may  largely  take  the  place  of  experi- 
ence; but  in  haymaking  experience  is  necessary  in 


MEADOWS    AND    PASTURES 


35 


order  to  be  able  to  know  at  what  stage  to  perform  the 
necessary  operations.  Only  the  most  general  rules  can 
be  laid  down.  In  most  cases,  as  much  as  possible 
of  the  curing  should  be  done  in  windrows  or  cocks. 
After  the  hay  is  cocked  up  there  is  not  so  much  need 
for  haste,  unless  there  is  danger  of  rain.  It  is  good 


FIG.  4— HAYING    SCENE    IN     NOVA    SCOTIA 

policy,  however,  to  get  hay  in  stack  or  mow  as  soon 
as  it  is  dry  enough  not  to  mould.  The  color  and 
flavor  will  be  the  better  the  less  rain  and  sunshine  the 
hay  gets  after  it  is  cut.  By  referring  to  the  grades  of 
hay  in  the  last  chapter,  it  will  be  seen  that  color  is  a 
leading  factor  in  its  classification.  Not  that  color  of 
itself  is  essential,  but  it  is  the  most  important  indica- 
tion of  the  manner  in  which  the  curing  was  done.  As 


36        FARM    GRASSES    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES 

a  rule,  the  less  change  that  occurs  in  color  during  the 
curing  the  better  the  hay  will  be. 

How  long  to  leave  hay  in  the  cock  cannot  be  de- 
termined by  any  general  rule.  It  depends  on  the  kind 
of  hay,  the  stage  at  which  it  is  cut,  the  dryness  of  the 
atmosphere,  and  the  weight  of  the  crop.  A  heavy  crop 
takes  longer  to  cure  than  a  light  one.  Timothy  cures 
quickly,  while  millets  require  a  longer  time.  A  rule 
frequently  followed  by  farmers  is  to  begin  stacking  when 
the  hay  "in  the  center  of  the  cock  is  dry  enough  that 
when  a  wisp  of  it  is  twisted  no  juice  can  be  squeezed 
out  of  it. 

When  a  large  quantity  of  hay  is  put  in  a  single  mow 
or  stack  it  may  be  stored  in  a  greener  state  than  when 
the  quantity  is  small.  Some  farmers  put  clover  hay 
in  the  mow  right  from  the  mower.  .In  storing  hay 
as  green  as  this  they  usually  put  about  a  gallon  of 
salt  on  each  ton  of  hay.  Some  use  a  half  gallon  of 
quicklime  instead  of  the  salt.  The  salt  or  lime  absorbs 
moisture  from  the  hay,  and  thus  aids  the  curing  proc- 
ess. Hay  stored  before  drying  generally  turns  brown, 
or  even  black,  in  curing,  but  it  is  readily  eaten  by 
stock.  The  writer  has  never  practiced  this  method  of 
bulk-curing,  though  it  is  frequently  reported  in  the 
agricultural  papers.  Hay  cured  this  way  is  close  kin 
to  silage. 

The  method  of  curing  hay  (timothy  and  clover) 
used  by  the  Rev.  J.  D.  Detrich,  formerly  of  Flour- 
town,  Pa.,  who  probably  raises  the  largest  crops  of  hay 
of  any  farmer  in  this  country,  is  given  in  his  own  words, 
as  follows  :  "The  grass  is  cut  in  the  afternoon.  The 
first  night's  dew  never  hurts  it.  The  next  day  it  is 


MEADOWS    AND    PASTURES 


37 


left  to  lie  until  noon.  It  is  then  put  into  curing  cocks, 
which  are  made  flat.  The  cocks  are  upset  the  next 
morning,  and  in  the  afternoon  four  of  them  are  made 
into  one  weathering  cock.  Thus  it  is  allowed  to  re- 
main for  one  day,  and  then  hauled  to  the  barn  or  rick." 


FIG.    5— RAKE    FOR    MOVING    HAY-COCKS    TO    STACK 

This  gives  three  days  from  cutting  to  hauling.     The 
quality  of  this  hay  is  unsurpassed. 

STACKING   AND    BAILING 

In  stacking  hay,  especially  if  it  is  to  remain  long  in 
the  stack,  it  is  important  to  place  the  hay  so  that  it  will 
settle  evenly,  arid  more  so  near  the  margins  than  at 
the  centre.  This  is  accomplished  by  dumping  the 
forkful  in  the  centre  of  the  stack,  and  then  distribut- 
ing it  evenly,  keeping  the  middle  a  little  high.  If 
the  rick  form  is  used  the  fork  should  be  dumped  along 


38         FARM    GRASSES    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES 

the  middle,  and  care  should  be  used  to  distribute  the 
hay  so  that  the  whole  central  line  of  the  rick  is 
equally  compressed.  Neglect  of  this  precaution  will 
cause  the  centre  to  sag  in  places  and  leak  rain  into  the 
centre  of  the  rick.  (A  stack  made  too  flat  is  shown  in 
Fig.  6.)  The  stack  or  rick  should  have  some  kind  of 


FIG.  6 — A    HAY-STACK    MADE    TOO     FLAT 

foundation  to  prevent  decay  from  contadl  with  the 
ground.  A  layer  of  dry  straw  a  foot  deep  will  answer 
for  this,  but  a  foundation  of  boards  or  fence-rails  is  bet- 
ter. After  the  stack  is  about  two-thirds  as  high  as  it 
is  desired  to  make  it  the  middle  should  be  consider- 
ably raised  and  kept  high  till  it  is  finished.  This  will 
cause  the  hay  to  settle  so  as  to  shed  rain  better. 

It  is  usually  necessary  to  anchor  the  stack  to  pre- 
vent the  top  from  blowing  away  in  strong  winds  before 


MEADOWS    AND     PASTURES 


39 


it  is  well  compacted.  A  good  plan  is  to  tie  weights  to 
the  two  ends  of  a  rope  and  hang  this  over  the  top. 
Two  such  ropes  crossed  at  right  angles  will  hold  a 
stack  in  ordinary  winds,  and  one  such  rope  about  every 
six  feet  on  a  rick  will  answer  the  same  purpose. 

Little  need  be  said  regarding  the  baling  of  hay.    It 


FIG.  7 — HAY-DERRICK    IN    COMMON    USE    IN    UTAH 

is  unnecessary  to  bale  hay  that  is  to  be  consumed  on 
the  farm  or  sold  for  local  consumption.  Hay  that  is 
to  be  vShipped  must  be  baled  to  reduce  its  bulk  and 
make  it  more  convenient  to  handle.  The  size  of  the 
bale  is  determined  by  the  requirements  of  the  markets 
in  which  it  is  to  be  sold.  One  hundred  pounds  is  the 
usual  size,  though  some  markets  require  bales  smaller 
and  some  much  larger.  On  the  Pacific  Coast,  where 


40        FARM    GRASSES    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES 

considerable  hay  is  baled  for  the  export  trade,  a  great 
deal  of  it  is  double  compressed.  The  ordinary  bales 
are  put  into  a  hydraulic  press  and  the  size  is  reduced 
about  one-half,  so  that  a  ton  of  double-compressed  hay 
occupies  only  fifty-five  cubic  feet,  or  a  cubic  space  less 
than  four  feet  each  way.  Hay  thus  compressed  secures 
lower  freight  rates  than  that  in  ordinary  bales.  The 
practice  of  baling  from  the  cock,  or  even  from  the 
windrow,  is  becoming  common  in  some  sections,  espe- 
cially on  the  Pacific  Coast,  where  fine  weather  is  always 
assured  in  the  haying  season  (except  near  the  ocean)  „ 
When  baled  direct  from  the  cock  or  windrow  it  is  nec- 
essary to  let  the  hay  get  a  little  dryer  than  it  needs  to 
be  for  stacking  to  avoid  heating  in  the  bales,  and  the 
bales  should  not  be  closely  bulked  until  they  have  had 
time  to  "  go  through  the  sweat. " 

GRAZING   THE   AFTERMATH 

It  is  a  common  practice  in  this  country  to  allow 
stock  to  run  on  the  meadow  after  the  hay  is  off  unless 
it  is  desired  to  cut  a  second  crop.  In  this  case  stock 
is  usually  turned  in  after  the  last  crop  is  off.  (Tim- 
othy makes  only  one  crop  of  hay,  while  clover  makes 
two,  and  alfalfa  three  or  more  in  a  season. )  In  the 
North  there  is  little  harm  in  this  if  the  number  of  ani- 
mals is  not  too  large.  It  is  always  unwise  to  let  stock 
eat  a  meadow  down  very  close,  especially  late  in  the 
fall.  The  meadow  is  much  more  liable  to  injury  from 
cold  in  winter  when  left  bare.  It  is  decidedly  bad 
policy  to  turn  stock  on  a  meadow  in  wet  weather,  for 
they  puddle  the  soil  and  cut  up  the  sod  with  their 
hoofs.  Timothy  should  never  be  pastured  close,  for  it 


MEADOWS    AND    PASTURES  41 

is  killed  by  too  close  cropping.  In  the  Middle  South 
a  good  meadow  of  the  ordinary  grasses,  such  as  tim- 
othy, orchard-grass,  fescue,  and  redtop,  should  never 
be  pastured  at  all,  and  a  Bermuda-grass  meadow  must 
not  be  pastured  late  in  the  fall.  If  it  is,  it  is  liable  to 
freeze  out.  Johnson  grass  will  not  stand  pasturing  to 
any  extent.  If  pastured  at  all  closely  it  becomes 
patchy. 


IV 

MEADOWS  AND  PASTURES  (Concluded) 
LONGEVITY   OF   MEADOWS 

HHE  length  of  time  a  meadow  will  last  depends 
on  the  grasses  of  which  it  is  composed,  on 
the  climate  and  the  character  of  the  soil,  and 
on  the  treatment  it  receives.  Meadows  of 
Bermuda  grass,  blue-grass,  or  alfalfa  last  almost  in- 
definitely with  proper  treatment,  and  remain  as  prolific 
as  at  first ;  in  fact,  they  increase  in  productiveness 
for  some  years  after  they  are  laid  down.  Meadows  of 
other  grasses  usually  produce  their  largest  yield  the 
first  year  a  crop  is  obtained,  and  will  drop  to  about  half 
this  amount  in  one  or  two  years  more  unless  well 
manured.  Even  with  good  manuring,  meadows  of  the 
common  hay  grasses  of  this  country  seldom  remain  as 
productive  as  they  were  the  first  year.  Most  of  our 
meadows  become  weedy  in  a  few  years.  A  weedy 
meadow  is  an  eyesore  on  any  farm.  The  best  remedy 
is  to  plow  it  up  and  run  it  through  the  regular  rota- 
tion, so  as  to  give  a  chance  to  destroy  the  weeds.  If 
it  is  good  arable  land,  and  is  not  in  blue-grass, 
Bermuda  grass,  or  alfalfa,  the  best  plan  is  to  keep 
meadows  down  only  two  years,  unless  they  are  wanted 
for  pasture  for  a  year  or  two  longer.  It  is,  of  course, 
recognized  that  special  conditions  may  render  it  desir- 
able to  keep  a  meadow  down  for  a  longer  time.  If 
42 


MEADOWS    AND    PASTURES  43 

this  is  the  case,  it  should  be  well  fertilized  and  kept 
free  from  weeds. 

PASTURES 

Much  of  what  has  been  said  concerning  meadows 
applies  as  well  to  pastures,  and  need  not  be  repeated 
here.  There  are  two  really  great  pasture-grasses  in 
this  country — the  blue-grass  of  the  North  and  the 
Bermuda  grass  of  the  South.  To  these  we  may  add 
brome-grass  of  the  Northwestern  Prairie  States.  These 
are  discussed  in  later  chapters.  Practically  all  the 
meadow-grasses  are  used  more  or  less  for  pasture  pur- 
poses ;  in  fact,  there  is  scarcely  a  crop  grown  in  this 
country  that  is  not  utilized  to  some  extent  for  pasture. 
In  California  herds  of  sheep  graze  the  leaves  and 
tender  shoots  on  grapvines  after  the  fruit  is  harvested. 
In  the  South  cattle  are  frequently  turned  into  the  cot- 
ton-fields at  the  end  of  the  season,  where  they  eat  the 
leaves  and  immature  bolls  of  the  cotton-plant.  All  the 
cereals  are  used  extensively  for  winter  pastures,  partic- 
ularly in  the  South,  for  which  purpose  they  are  ex- 
tremely valuable.  All  over  the  country  stubble-fields 
and  stalk-fields  are  pastured  after  the  grain  is  harvested. 
Green  crops  of  every  description,  including  corn,  sor- 
ghum, rape,  etc.,  are  more  or  less  used  as  pastures, 
and  when  properly  managed  they  furnish  more  abun- 
dant forage  than  the  ordinary  hay  and  pasture  grasses. 

In  the  more  thickly  populated  sections  of  the  coun- 
try, especially  on  the  better  class  of  lands,  there  is  a 
marked  tendency  to  confine  permanent  pastures  to 
rough  land  or  land  otherwise  unsuited  to  cropping. 
It  is  contended  that  the  amount  of  feed  secured  from 
such  pasture-land  is  so  small  that  the  farmer  cannot 


44        FARM    GRASSES    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES 

afford  to  devote  good  land  to  this  purpose.  There  is 
much  truth  in  this  contention,  particularly  in  view  of 
the  usual  method  of  pasturing  in  this  country,  which 
is  to  throw  all  the  pasture-land  into  a  single  inclosure 
and  turn  all  the  stock  upon  it.  When  land  is  pastured 
in  this  manner,  if  it  is  stocked  sufficiently  to  keep  the 
growth  down,  the  yield  of  forage  is  small,  for  a  small 
plant  does  not  make  as  much  growth  in  a  day  as  a 
large  one.  On  the  other  hand,  if  the  amount  of  stock 
is  too  vSmall  to  keep  the  growth  eaten  down,  much  feed 
is  wasted  by  trampling,  and  the  grass  is  eaten  closely 
in  some  places,  while  it  is  left  to  grow  rank  and  coarse 
in  others. 

The  Michigan  Experiment  Station  some  years  ago 
determined  the  relative  yield  of  forage  on  grass-plats, 
part  of  which  were  kept  closely  clipped,  in  imitation  of 
pasture,  the  remainder  being  treated  as  meadow,  and 
cut  when  more  fully  mature.  The  yield  of  forage  on 
the  plats  treated  as  meadow  was  three  to  four  times 
that  of  the  others.  This  agrees  with  the  experience 
of  farmers  that  meadows  produce  more  feed  than  the 
same  area  in  pastures.  The  practice  of  devoting  only 
rough  lands  to  permanent  pastures,  therefore,  seems  to 
be  justified — at  least  in  sections  where  farm-land  is 
high-priced. 

Methods  of  pasturing  prevail  in  many  parts  of 
Europe  by  which  much  more  feed  is  obtained  from  the 
land.  There  cattle  are  frequently  tethered  in  such 
manner  that  the  area  they  can  graze  is  only  sufficient 
to  furnish  feed  for  one  day.  The  next  day  they  are 
moved  far  enough  to  secure  another  day's  feed.  In 
this  way  grass  is  eaten  clean,  and  there  is  little  or  no 


MKADOWS    AND    PASTURES  45 

waste  from  trampling.  This  method  also  permits  the 
grasses  to  grow  to  proper  maturity,  so  that  the  amount 
of  growth  is  a  maximum.  Another  method  of  accom- 
plishing the  same  end  is  to  divide  the  pasture  by 
means  of  temporary  or  permanent  fences,  and  allow 
the  stock  to  remain  in  one  inclosure  till  the  grass  is 
closely  eaten  before  admitting  them  to  the  next. 
Meanwhile  the  herbage  in  the  inclosure  first  pastured 
is  allowed  to  grow  up  again  before  it  is  -eaten  down  a 
second  time.  Both  of  these  methods  require  much  at- 
tention from  the  herdsman,  and  are  hardly  practicable 
on  farms  where  beef  production  is  a  prominent  fea- 
ture. One  or  the  other  of  these  intensive  forms  of 
pasturing  might  be  practiced  with  profit  with  dairy 
cows,  sheep,  or  hogs.  Both  of  them  are  close  kin  to 
the  method  of  soiling. 

In  many  parts  of  the  country  the  cereals  are  used 
extensively  for  pasture  with  excellent  results.  This 
is  particularly  the  case  in  the  South.  Oats  are  used 
more  frequently  for  this  purpose  than  the  -  other 
cereals,  though  in  part  of  western  North  Carolina,  and 
adjacent  regions  in  adjoining  States,  a  Southern  va- 
riety of  rye  is  used  extensively.  Around  Sherman, 
Texas,  a  winter  variety  of  barley  has  recently  gained 
much  favor,  and  is  extensively  used  for  winter  pasture. 
It  is  said  to  yield  more  abundant  feed  than  oats,  rye, 
or  wheat,  while  stock  eat  it  with  greater  relish.  In 
favorable  seasons — that  is,  when  there  is  no  drouth  to 
check  growth — any  of  the  cereals  sown  the  middle  of 
September  in  the  South  will  furnish  considerable  feed 
by  the  first  of  November.  Stock  may  be  kept  on 
these  pastures  till  in  the  spring,  when  the  grains  begin 


46        FARM    GRASSES    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES 

to  throw  up  seed-stalks,  after  which,  if  the  stock  are 
removed,  a  fair  crop  of  grain  may  be  harvested. 

Good  temporary  pastures  may  be  made  in  the 
North  in  summer  by  sowing  winter  cereals  in  the 
spring.  A  true  winter  cereal,  if  sown  in  spring  in  the 
North,  will  not  head  out  that  year,  but  will  produce  a 
fine  growth  of  leaves  which  stock  eat  with  a  relish. 
They  may  also  be  pastured  the  following  winter,  and 
then  produce  a  crop  of  grain  the  next  spring  if  the 
stock  is  taken  off  early  enough,  except  in  the  case  of 
wheat,  which  is  destroyed  by  the  Hessian  fly  when 
sown  in  the  spring  and  left  over  till  next  spring.  For 
this  reason,  when  winter  wheat  is  sown  in  spring  and 
used  for  summer  pasture,  it  should  be  plowed  up  in  the 
fall. 

When  the  cereals  are  used  for  pasture,  particularly 
on  clay  soils,  greater  care  should  be  taken  not  to  allow 
stock  on  the  field  in  wet  weather  than  when  pasturing 
grasses  that  form  a  dense  sod.  A  clay  soil  may  be 
pradlically  ruined  by  the  trampling  of  stock  in  wet 
weather,  even  where  it  has  a  good  sod  to  protect  it. 

PASTURE   MIXTURES 

If  questions  concerning  farm  practice  could  be 
solved  with  pencil  and  paper,  the  problem  of  the  best 
pasture  mixtures  would  have  been  solved  long  ago.  It 
is  easy  to  figure  out  mixtures  that  ought  to  give  abun- 
dant pasture  from  early  spring  till  snow  flies,  and,  in  the 
South,  the  year  round.  This  has  been  done  repeat- 
edly for  the  American  farmer,  but  he  still  sticks  to  his 
blue-grass  and  white  clover  or  his  Bermuda  grass,  as 
the  case  may  be,  thus  depriving  his  stock  of  pasture 


MEADOWS    AND     PASTURES  47 

for  a  considerable  portion  of  the  season  of  possible  pas- 
ture. Whether  the  trouble  lies  with  the  farmer  or  with 
the  mixtures  it  is  not  possible  to  say.  Both  are  prob- 
ably to  blame — the  farmer  for  not  giving  the  mixtures 
a  more  extended  trial,  and  the  mixtures  for  not  giving 
better  results  when  they  are  tried.  Usually,  when  the 
American  farmer  wakes  up  to  the  fact  that  he  is  not 
getting  sufficient  income  from  his  pastures,  he  aban- 
dons the  use  of  pastures  as  much  as  possible  instead  of 
trying  to  make  them  productive  enough  to  pay.  There 
is  room  for  a  lot  of  demonstration  work  on  this  subject 
at  the  experiment  stations.  The  methods  used  in 
Europe  ought  to  be  given  a  thorough  trial  here.  Until 
this  is  done  a  good  many  people  will  always  believe 
that  the  productiveness  of  English  grass-lands  could  be 
duplicated  here.  There  are  some  parts  of  the  country 
in  which  blue-grass  and  Bermuda  grass  are  quite  satis- 
factory as  pasture.  There  are  many  places  where  they 
are  not.  The  use  of  brome-grass  and  alfalfa  as  a  pas- 
ture mixture  is  mentioned  elsewhere  in  these  pages. 
This  mixture  deserves  a  fair  trial  over  all  parts  of  the 
timothy  region  where  blue-grass  is  not  highly  pro- 
ductive. Mixtures  of  timothy,  redtop,  orchard-grass, 
tall  fescue  (the  kind  grown  in  Eastern  Kansas),  blue- 
grass,  Canada  blue-grass,  and  the  clovers,  including 
alfalfa,  deserve  to  be  tried  extensively  all  over  the 
northern  half  of  the  country  for  permanent  pasture. 
Until  this  is  more  generally  done  it  is  impossible  to 
state  what  the  result  would  be.  The  writer  believes  a 
mixture  of  all  the  above  varieties  named  would  furnish 
more  pasture  in  many  parts  of  the  country  than  the 
common  mixtures  do. 


48         FARM    GRASSES    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES 

There  are  only  about  four  States  of  the  Union  that 
have  as  much  as  50  per  cent,  of  their  area  improved. 
Whatever  may  be  said  of  the  advisability  of  keeping 
good  arable  land  in  pastures,  a  great  deal  of  this  unim- 
proved land  could  be  made  into  fairly  productive  pas- 
ture. In  the  blue-grass  country  this  can  be  done  by 
clearing  off  the  rubbish,  burning  the  leaves  and  litter, 
and  scattering  seed  of  such  grasses  as  blue-grass,  white 
clover,  orchard-grass,  and  redtop.  On  rough  hill  land 
on  the  farm  belonging  to  the  Missouri  Experiment 
Station,  which,  during  the  writer's  schoolboy  days,  was 
covered  by  a  dense  growth  of  blackjack  and  postoak 
timber,  there  are  now  fine  blue-grass  pastures  made 
in  this  manner.  The  productiveness  of  such  pastures 
can  be  continued  by  keeping  them  free  from  brush  and 
weeds. 

WEEDS   irf   MEADOWS  AND   PASTURES 

Weeds  may  be  divided  into  three  classes — namely, 
annuals,  or  biennials,  which  die  root  and  branch  when 
they  have  made  seed;  ordinary  perennials,  which  die 
down  to  the  ground  in  the  fall,  but  the  roots  of  which 
remain  alive  for  several  or  many  years;  and  perennials 
with  creeping,  or  underground,  stems,  whose  aerial 
stems  die  at  the  approach  of  winter,  but  whose  under- 
ground stems  live  over. 

The  way  to  eradicate  an  annual  or  biennial  weed  is 
to  prevent  it  from  making  seed.  The  seeds  of  some  of 
them  may  live  for  many  years  in  the  soil  and  send  up 
a  new  crop  of  weeds  annually.  If  they  be  cut  back 
persistently,  so  that  no  new  seed  is  formed,  they  can 
finally  be  eradicated.  The  hardest  weeds  of  this  class 
to  handle  are  those  which,  when  cut  back,  produce  seed 


MEADOWS    AND    PASTURES  49 

on  short  branches  near  the  ground.  They  must  be 
treated  as  the  ordinary  perennials. 

Ordinary  perennial  weeds  must  be  cut  off  below 
the  crown.  This  requires  the  use  of  the  hoe,  the  spud, 
or,  where  very  numerous,  the  turning-plow,  which,  of 
course,  means  reseeding  the  meadow  or  pasture. 
Perennials  with  underground  stems  are  the  most  diffi- 
cult to  deal  with.  Quack-grass  (Fig.  8),  Johnson 
grass,  and  Canada  thistle  belong  in  this  class.  The 
surest  way  to  kill  them  is  to  harrow  out  as  large  a 
proportion  of  the  roots  as  possible,  and  then  summer- 
fallow  the  land,  running  over  it  as  often  as  the  weeds 
get  a  start  with  some  implement  that  shaves  off  a  layer 
of  the  top  soil.  Weeds  of  this  class  that  do  not  grow 
very  tall  may  be  smothered  out  by  such  dense  growing 
crops  as  millet,  buckwheat,  sorghum  (sown  thick), 
etc.  Such  weeds  may  also  be  killed  by  cutting  them 
back  so  frequently  that  they  have  no  chance  to  manu- 
facture and  store  up  food  enough  in  their  underground 
stems  to  keep  them  alive. 

The  weeds  which  infest  grass-lands  vary  in  differ- 
ent sections.  In  the  North,  whiteweed  (Erigeron phila- 
delphicus)  is  one  of  the  most  troublesome.  In  pastures 
this  can  be  held  in  check  by  mowing,  but  when  a 
meadow  becomes  infested  with  it  the  best  remedy  is 
to  plow  it  up.  Sorrel  {Rumex  acetosella)  is  probably 
the  next  most  troublesome  weed  in  grass-lands  in  the 
North.  It  is  particularly  troublesome  in  old  grass- 
lands, and  its  presence  is  believed  to  indicate  an  acid 
condition  of  the  soil.  A  good  application  of  lime,  to 
correct  acidity,  and  manure  or  fertilizer  to  produce  a 
vigorous  growth  of  the  grasses  and  clovers,  is  said  to 


FIGf     8 — QUACK-GRASS 


MEADOWS    AND    PASTURES  51 

be  the  remedy  for  it.  Sorrel  seldom  appears  in  grass 
lands  that  are  so  treated  as  to  keep  up  a  vigorous 
growth.  Its  presence  is  a  pretty  good  indication  that 
it  is  time  to  plow  up  the  sod  and  run  it  through  a 
rotation  which  will  give  an  opportunity  to  kill  weeds 
and  put  the  land  in  good  heart.  Some  old  timothy 
meadows  are  much  overrun  with  plantain,  especially 
on  worn  soils  where  the  grass  makes  a  feeble  growth. 
It  is  unwise  to  keep  meadows  down  on  such  soils  after 
plantain  becomes  troublesome. 

In  middle  latitudes  and  in  the  Southern  States 
broom-sedge  {Andropogon  virginicus)  is  probably  the 
most  troublesome  weed  in  grass-lands.  It  may  be 
kept  out  by  prompt  removal  with  the  hoe  or  spud  as 
soon  as  it  appears.  Broom-sedge  does  not  bother  on 
land  kept  in  condition  to  grow  a  good  crop  of  grass,  and 
causes  trouble  only  in  meadows  and  pastures  several 
years  old.  When  young  and  tender,  stock  eat  it  fairly 
well,  and  this  has  a  tendency  to  hold  it  in  check  in 
pastures.  When  it  becomes  plentiful  in  a  meadow, 
the  best  plan  is  to  break  up  the  land  and  grow  a  culti- 
vated crop.  Brome-sedge  does  not  invade  land  that  is 
plowed  once  or  twice  a  year. 

Bitterweed  {Helenium  tenuifolium)  is  very  trou- 
blesome on  over-stocked  and  poorly  fertilized  grass- 
lands in  many  parts  of  the  South.  It  is  particularly 
objectionable  on  dairy  farms,  since  it  affects  the  flavor 
of  milk  very  unfavorably.  To  get  rid  of  it  fertilize 
well  and  reduce  the  number  of  stock  kept  on  a  given 
area,  so  as  to  give  the  grass  a  chance  to  run  out  the 
weed.  Being  an  annual,  it  may  also  be  killed  by  pre- 
venting it  from  making  seed. 


52         FARM    GRASSES    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES 

On  the  Pacific  Coast  a  species  of  fern  (Pteris  aqui- 
lina)  is  the  worst  weed  in  grass-lands,  particularly 
west  of  the  Cascade  Mountains,  in  Washington  and 
Oregon.  It  is  provided  with  rather  formidable  under- 
ground sterns,  and  is  difficult  to  eradicate.  It  may  be 
held  in  check  by  cutting  twice  or  three  times  a  season. 
When  young  and  tender,  sheep  and  goats  will  eat  it, 
and  it  may  be  eradicated  by  stocking  the  land  heavily 
with  these  animals.  It  does  not  bother  much  on  land 
that  is  plowed  eight  or  ten  inches  deep  once  a  year, 
and  hence  is  not  very  troublesome  on  well-cultivated 
fields. 

MANURING   GRASS-IyANDS 

The  use  of  fertilizers  is  one  of  the  most  unsatisfac- 
tory subjects  to  handle  in  the  whole  range  of  agricul- 
tural science.  It  is  now  just  one  hundred  years  since 
the  first  carefully  planned  fertilizer  experiments  were 
laid  out  by  a  modern  investigator.  Sixty-two  years 
ago  Liebig's  great  work  was  published,  in  which  the 
theory  was  announced  that  by  analyzing  the  soil  and 
the  crop  the  chemist  could  prescribe  the  fertilizers  to 
be  applied  in  any  given  case.  This  theory  was  the 
basis  of  the  work  of  the  agricultural  chemists  for  half 
a  century.  Innumerable  fertilizer  experiments  have 
been  conducted  with  the  utmost  care.  The  soil  has 
been  analyzed  times  almost  without  number.  The 
constitution  of  the  mineral  matter  removed  from  the 
soil  by  plants  has  been  determined  to  a  nicety.  It  is 
definitely  known  that  chemical  fertilizers  frequently, 
we  may  say  usually,  exert  a  decidedly  favorable  influ- 
ence on  growing  crops.  It  is  absolutely  impossible, 
however,  to  say  just  what  fertilizers  or  how  much  of 


MEADOWS    AND    PASTURES  53 

them  should  be  applied  in  any  given  case  with  assur- 
ance that  the  application  will  be  profitable.  It  is 
fairly  certain  that  fertilizers  do  not  produce  much 
effect  on  soils  that  are  not  pretty  well  supplied  with 
decaying  vegetable  matter,  except  in  the  case  of  cer- 
tain sandy  soils  that  are  always  in  good  mechanical 
condition.  Dr.  E.  H.  Jenkins,  of  the  Connecticut 
State  Experiment  Station,  after  a  lifetime  spent  in  con- 
ducting fertilizer  experiments,  and  after  reading  the 
results  of  practically  all  the  experiments  of  this  kind 
that  have  been  published,  both  in  Europe  and  Amer- 
ica, at  a  recent  gathering  of  agricultural  chemists  said: 
' '  The  only  recommendation  I  can  make  with  confi- 
dence is  that  barn-yard  manure  is  a  good  thing  to  put 
on  land. ' ' 

While  we  know  that  many  farmers  in  the  older 
sections  of  the  country  are  using  fertilizers  with  profit 
to  themselves,  it  is  necessary  for  every  man  to  depend 
largely  on  his  own  experience  in  this  matter.  It  re- 
quires long  years  of  experimenting  to  arrive  at  reliable 
conclusions  regarding  the  use  of  fertilizers.  Several 
of  our  experiment  stations  are  doing  splendid  work  in 
this  line.  In  time  we  may  hope  that  they  will  be  able 
to  give  us  safe  rules  to  follow.  Regarding  the  use  of 
barn-yard  manure  on  grass-lands  it  is  possible  to 
make  positive  recommendations;  as  to  the  use  of  com- 
mercial fertilizers,  if  one  will  take  the  trouble  to  read 
the  recommendations  of  different  authorities  it  will  be 
seen  that  we  are  quite  in  the  dark. 

The  farmer  who  probably  produces  the  largest 
crops  of  hay  in  America  makes  the  following  state- 
ment concerning  his  practice  in  the  use  of  fresh  stable 


54        FARM    GRASSES    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES 

manure  on  his  meadows  :  ' '  The  grass-seeds  are  sown 
on  well-prepared  land  in  late  summer.  The  land  is 
manured  before  it  is  plowed  for  the  grass  crop.  No 
top-dressing  is  used  the  first  winter,  as  '  the  young 
grass  will  not  stand  it.'  The  next  winter  the  sod  is 
top-dressed,  as  it  is  again  the  next.  It  is  then  plowed 
up  for  corn."  Manure  on  this  farm  contains  both  the 
liquid  and  the  solid  excrement  from  the  stock. 

On  farms  where  manure  is  not  plentiful  it  is  con- 
sidered good  practice  to  plow  under  a  light  dressing  of 
manure  in  preparing  land  for  grass.  As  a  rule,  no 
further  dressing  of  manure  is  applied  till  the  winter 
after  the  second  haying  season,  when  the  sod  is  ma- 
nured before  breaking  it  up  for  corn.  Ten  to  twelve 
tons  of  barn-yard  manure  per  acre  is  generally  con- 
sidered a  good  dressing;  four  to  six  tons  a  light  one. 

Sir  John  L,awes,  whose  valuable  investigations  at 
Rothamstead,  England,  extended  over  more  than  half 
a  century,  in  speaking  of  the  application  of  fertilizers 
to  permanent  grass-lands,  says:  ."A  dressing  of  dung 
once  in  five  years,  with  two  hundredweight  of  nitrate 
of  soda  each  year  for  the  other  four  years, ' '  was  the 
best  practice. 

Freer,  another  English  authority,  makes  the  fol- 
lowing recommendations  regarding  the  season  of  the 
year  in  which  to  apply  manure  and  fertilizers  to  grass- 
lands :  Barn-yard  manure  should  be  applied  during 
winter,  and  not  later  than  the  last  of  February;  phos- 
phates and  potash,  by  the  first  of  March;  ammonium 
sulphate,  by  the  first  of  March;  nitrate  of  soda,  by 
April  15. 

Professor  Soule,  of  the  Tennessee  station,   reconi- 


MEADOWS    AND    PASTURES  55 

mends  the  application  of  fifty  bushels  per  acre  of  well- 
slacked  lime  in  preparing  land  for  grass  in  that  section. 
The  lime  should  be  applied  to  the  land  after  plowing, 
and  should  be  harrowed  in.  He  recommends  a  top- 
dressing  of  fifteen  tons  of  barn-yard  manure  per  acre  in 
addition  to  the  lime,  applied  before  sowing.  If  com- 
mercial fertilizers  are  used,  apply  300  to  600  Ibs.  of 
a  mixture  consisting  of  100  Ibs.  of  sodium  nitrate,  250 
Ibs.  of  acid  phosphate,  and  50  Ibs.  of  muriate  of  potash. 

Professor  Lloyd,  of  the  Mississippi  station,  recom- 
mends the  following:  Cottonseed  meal,  800  Ibs.;  stable 
manure,  800  Ibs.;  kainit,  400 Ibs. — composted,  applied 
at  the  rate  of  i  ton  per  acre,  and  plowed  under;  or,  cot- 
tonseed meal,  500  Ibs.;  kainit,  300  Ibs.;  gypsum  or 
slacked  lime,  200  Ibs. — applied  after  breaking,  and  har- 
rowed in  just  before  seeding.  On  sandy  soils  use  300 
Ibs.  of  phosphate  instead  of  the  kainit. 

Professor  Mell,  of  the  Alabama  station,  recommends, 
in  preparing  grass-land,  the  use  of  stable  manure;  or, 
ground  bone,  300  to  400  Ibs.;  cottonseed  meal,  100 
Ibs.;  nitrate  of  soda,  50  to  loolbs. 

Professor  Killebrew,  formerly  of  the  Tennessee 
station,  recommends  the  following  application  to  be 
applied  to  grass-lands,  presumably  in  early  spring: 
Top-dress  with  100  Ibs.  of  nitrate  of  soda,  and  three 
weeks  later  with  100  Ibs.  of  bone  meal  or  superphos- 
phate. Where  there  is  clover,  gypsum  may  be  ap- 
plied. Use  stable  manure  freely  after  the  fall  rains 
begin;  it  is  the  best  of  all  fertilizers  for  grass- lands  in 
Tennessee. 


THE  SEED  * 

SEED    PRODUCTION 

HHE   produdlion    of    grass-seed    (not    including 
clover-seed)    for  the  year  1899  *s  shown  in 
Fig.  9.     This  map  is  based  on  the  returns  of 
the  United  States  Census  Bureau,  and  shows 
the  area  where  grass-seed  is  grown  in  this  country. 
As  each  dot  on  the  map  represents  the  produdlion  of 
10,000  bushels,  only  the  centres  of  produdlion  where 
the  raising  of  grass-seed  is  an  important  industry  are 
indicated.     The  seeds  of  standard  grasses  are  shown 
in  Figs.  10  and  n. 

The  State  of  Iowa  leads  in  this  industry,  and  fur- 
nishes nearly  one-half  of  the  grass-seed  grown  in  the 
United  States.  Timothy  is  raised  over  a  greater  area 
than  any  other  of  the  grass-seeds,  but  its  produdlion 
on  a  large  scale  is  confined  to  regions  near  the  north- 
ern and  southern  boundaries  of  Iowa.  Millet-seed  is 
grown  over  a  large  part  of  the  Mississippi  and  Mis- 
souri valleys,  but  the  seed  which  is  most  sought,  and 
known  in  the  market  as  Tennessee  grown,  comes  from 
a  comparatively  small  area  in  the  central  part  of  Ten- 


*  By  Edgar  Brown,  in  charge  of  the  Seed  laboratory  of  the   United 
States  Department  of  Agriculture. 

56 


THE    SEED 


57 


FIG.     9 — PRODUCTION    OF    GRASS-SEED     IN     THE     UNITED     STATES 

nessee.     The   areas  of   seed   production  of  the  other 
grasses  are  more  limited. 

The  famous  blue-grass  country  about  Lexington, 
Ky.,  furnishes  most  of  the  blue-grass  seed,  a  small 
amount  being  saved  in  southern  Illinois  and  along  the 
border  between  Missouri  and  Iowa.  Orchard-grass 
comes  from  near  Louisville,  Ky.,  on  both  sides  of  the 
Ohio  River.  (The  method  of  gathering  blue-grass  seed 


FIG.     10 — SEEDS     OF     STANDARD     GRASSES* 

a,  Meadow-fescue;  b,  English  Ryogruss;  r,  Italian  Rye  grass;  d,  Timothy; 
e.  Redtop  in  the  chaff;  /,  Redtop.  chaff  removed;^,  Rhode  Island  Bent; 
//,  Orchard-grass.  (G.  H.  Hicks,  Year-book,  Department  of  Agriculture, 
1898.) 

58 


FIG.     II — SEEDS     OF    STANDARD    GRASSES 

a,  Rescue-grass;  b,  Texas  Blue-grass;  c,  Chess,  or  Cheat;  d,  Canada 
Blue-grass;  e,  Bromus  inermis;  /",  Kentucky  Blue-grass.  (O.  H. 
Hicks,  Year-book,  Department  of  Agriculture,  1898. ) 

59 


6o        FARM    GRASSES    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES 

is  seen  in  Fig.  12,  and  of  curing  it  in  Fig.  13.)  Southern 
Illinois  furnishes  nearly  all  the  redtop  seed,  a  small 
amount  coming  from  southern  New  Jersey.  Marshall 
County,  in  northern  Kansas,  produces  practically  all 
of  the  meadow-fescue  seed.  A  little  Canada  blue-grass 
is  saved  in  western  New  York,  but  the  bulk  of  it  comes 
from  the  flat  clay  country  along  the  northern  shore  of 
Lake  Erie,  west  of  the  Niagara  River.  Aside  from 
Canadian  timothy,  orchard-grass  and  Bromus  inermis 
are  the  only  standard  grass-seeds  which  are  imported  in 
any  quantity.  During  the  year  ending  June  30,  1904, 
180,239  Ibs.  of  New  Zealand  orchard-grass  were  im- 
ported, and  during  the  same  time  298,654  Ibs.  of 
Bromus  inermis,  mostly  coming  from  Russia  through 
Germany.  Bromus  inermis  is  raised  extensively  in 
Minnesota  and  the  Dakotas,  and  down  the  Red  River 
Valley  into  Manitoba.  Johnson  grass  seed  is  raised 
along  the  Gulf,  from  Alabama  to  Texas.  Bermuda 
grass  seed  is  all  imported  from  Australia,  none  being 
raised  in  the  United  States.  As  this  grass  is  becoming 
more  favorably  known,  the  amount  of  seed  imported 
is  increasing  annually.  English  and  Italian  rye-grass 
seed  mostly  comes  from  Scotland  and  Ireland.  The 
seed  of  the  less  common  grasses,  such  as  tall  fescue, 
sheep' s-fescue,  the  bent  grasses,  and  sweet  vernal,  are 
not  saved  in  this  country  to  any  extent,  but  are  im- 
ported from  the  Continent  of  Europe,  mostly  from 
France  and  Germany. 

COST   OF   SEEDING   DIFFERENT   GRASSES 

The  cost  of  seed  sufficient  to  sow  an  acre  of  various 
grasses  is  shown  in  the  following  table.     The  prices 


pd 

O 
a 
13 

J 

M 

* 

U 


62 


FARM    GRASSES    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES 


are  taken  from  the  current  catalogue  of  a  well-known 
seed  house,  and  are  there  quoted  for  seed  in  hundred- 
pound  lots.  The  quantity  of  seed  to  sow  per  acre, 
shown  in  the  first  column  of  figures,  is  in  some  cases 
less  than  half  that  recommended  in  the  catalogue: 


COST    OF    SEED    PER   ACRE 


Lbs. 

Price 
Cents 

Cost 
per  Acre 

Timothy       . 

T  C 

&/Z 

f     07  1/ 

Italian  rye-grass 

2^ 

8 

2  QO 

Knglish  rye-grass  

25 

8 

2  OO 

Redtop 

JC 

2  40 

Meadow-  fescue  ...                 

20 

14 

2  8O 

Brotne-grass 

20 

16 

•7    2O 

Canada  blue-grass  
Orchard-grass  

30 

24 

12 
10 

6-^v 
3.60 

4  s6 

Kentucky  blue-grass  .   . 
Tall  oat-  grass      .          .... 

40 

3° 

16 

25 

6.40 
7  5° 

Tall  fescue 

2C 

JC 

1  1  2*\ 

The  low  price  of  timothy  is  due  largely  to  its  good 
seed  habits,  because  of  which  so  much  of  this  crop  is 
grown  as  to  render  the  seed  a  standard  article  of  com- 
merce. On  account  of  the  low  price,  together  with  the 
small  size  of  the  seed,  it  costs  less  than  half  as  much 
per  acre  to  seed  with  timothy  than  with  any  other  cul- 
tivated grass. 

The  low  cost  of  rye- grass  seed  is  due  to  the  great 
abundance  of  these  seeds  produced  in  England  and  on 
the  Continent  of  Europe,  where  they  are  the  leading 
grasses.  The  high  price  of  tall  fescue  seed  is  due 
largely  to  the  small  amount  produced.  There  is  no  in- 
trinsic reason  why  it  should  command  a  higher  price 


i-J 

n 

!* 
« 
u 
& 

^ 
w 


o 


64        FARM    GRASSES    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES 

than  meadow-fescue.  From  the  table  it  is  seen  that  the 
cost  of  some  varieties  of  seed,  such  as  tall  fescue  and 
tall  oat-grass,  is  so  high  as  to  be  well-nigh  prohibitive. 
This  difference  in  cost  undoubtedly  has  much  to  do 
with  the  lack  of  popularity  of  many  grasses,  even  in 
sections  where  they  are  superior  to  others. 

WEIGHT    PER    BUSHEL 

In  most  trade  centres  the  sale  of  seed  by  the  meas- 
ured bushel  has  been  abandoned,  and  the  much  more 
satisfactory  method  of  selling  by  the  hundred  pounds 
substituted.  However,  the  weight  per  bushel  is  highly 
important  as  an  approximate  indication  of  quality, 
as  it  determines  very  closely  the  amount  of  chaff, 
although  giving  no  information  regarding  wreed  seeds 
and  adulterants.  The  recognized  weights  for  the 
heavier  grass-seeds,  such  as  timothy  and  millet,  repre- 
sent a  good  grade,  while  with  the  lighter  seeds,  such 
as  blue-grass,  orchard- grass,  and  redtop,  the  weight 
per  bushel  of  good  seed  is  considerably  heavier  than 
that  commonly  used.  In  most  States  the  legal  weight 
of  Kentucky  blue-grass  is  14  Ibs.,  but  well-cleaned 
seed  of  good  quality  weighs  from  24  to  28  Ibs.  Or- 
chard-grass, which  is  usually  considered  as  14  Ibs., 
should  weigh  from  16  to  18  Ibs.  While  chaff  redtop 
often  weighs  8  Ibs.  or  less,  good,  solid,  recleaned 
seed  weighs  40  Ibs.  One  of  the  best  safeguards  in 
buying  the  lighter  grass-seeds  is  to  have  the  dealer 
determine  the  weight  per  bushel,  which  should,  in  all 
cases,  come  up  to  the  weight  shown  in  the  following 
table : 


THE    SEED  65 

TABLE   SHOWING   THE   WEIGHT    PER   BUSHEL   OF   GOOD   QUALITY, 
WELL-CLEANED   SEED   OF   THE    COMMON   GRASSES 

Weight 

per  Bushel 

Bent,  Creeping 20 

Bent,  Rhode  Island 15 

Bermuda  Grass 36 

Blue-grass,  Canada ,     .     .  20 

Blue-grass,  Kentucky 28 

Bromus  inermis 14 

Fescue,  Meadow    -. 27 

Fescue,  Tall 24 

Fescue,  Sheep's 16 

Johnson  Grass 28 

Meadow-foxtail 14 

Millet,  Common 50 

Millet,  Hungarian 50 

Millet,  German 50 

Millet,  Golden  Wonder 50 

Millet,  Broom-corn 60 

Orchard-grass 18 

Redtop 40 

Rye-grass,  English 28 

Rye-grass,  Italian 24 

Sweet  Vernal 15 

Tall  Meadow  Oat-grass 14 

Timothy   .     .     . 45 


WEED  SEEDS 

The  wfeed  seeds  found  in  commercial  seeds  are  not 
necessarily  the  most  common  weeds  in  the  fields  from 
which  the  seed  is. saved.  Only  those  will  occur  which 
ripen  at  about  the  same  time  as  the  grass-seed  and  are 
not  easily  cleaned  out.  Grass-seeds  contain,  on  the 
average,  a  much  smaller  percentage  of  weed  seeds  than 


66        FARM    GRASSES    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES 

clover,  but  there  are  a  number  of  kinds  usually  present. 
In  timothy  the  two  most  common  weeds  are  pepper- 
grass  (Lepidium  virginicum)  and  false  flax  (Camelina 
sativa) ,  the  latter  being  abundant  in  Canadian  seed  and 
especially  difficult  to  clean  out.  In  addition  to  these, 
timothy  often  carries  sorrel  (Rumex  acetosella) ,  narrow- 
leaved  plantain  (Plantago  lanceolata),  green  foxtail 
{ChatocMoa  viridis),  five-finger  (Potentilla  monspelien- 
sis),  curled  dock  (Rumex  crispus),  and  lady's  thumb 
(Chenopodium  album}. 

New  Zealand  orchard-grass  contains  more  or  less 
seed  of  velvet-grass  (Holcus  lanatus),  and  its  presence 
may  be  taken  as  good  evidence  of  the  origin  of  the  seed. 
Chess  (Bromus  secalinus),  ox-eye  daisy  (Chrysanthe- 
mum leucanthemum) ,  slender-rush  (Juncus  tennis), 
peppergrass  (Lepedium  virginicum),  narrow-leaved 
plantain,  five-finger,  and  sorrel  are  also  frequently 
found. 

Kentucky  blue- grass  usually  contains  seed  of  some 
of  the  sedges  (Carex  spp.),  slender- rush,  and  often 
shepherd's  purse  (Capsella  bursa-pastoris) ,  chick  weed 
(Cerastium  spp.),  peppergrass,  and  sorrel. 

Dealers  frequently  attempt  to  distinguish  Canada 
from  Kentucky  blue-grass  by  running  the  hand  into  the 
seed  to  see  if  Canada  thistle  spines  are  present.  As  Ken- 
tucky blue-grass  frequently  contains  spines  of  horse- 
nettle  (Solanum  carolinense),  which  closely  resemble 
those  of  Canada  thistle,  this  test  cannot  be  relied  upon 
and  is  apt  to  be  misleading.  Contrary  to  the  common 
belief,  Canada  blue- grass  seldom  contains  seed  of 
Canada  thistle,  although  the  spines  are  usually  present. 
While  the  seed  is  much  easier  cleaned  than  that  of 


FIG.    14 — WEED-SEEDS 

«,  Peppergrass  (Lepidium  virginicum) ;  b,  Slender  Rush  (Juncus  tennis}  \ 
c,  Velvet-grass  (Holcus  lanatus) ;  rf,  Fivefinger  (Potentilla  monspeliensis) ; 
e,  Oxeye  Daisy  (Chrysanthemum  leucanthemum) ;  /,  Sorrel  (Rumex 
acetosella) ;  g,  False  Flax  ( Camelina  saliva)  \  h,  Canada  Thistle 
(Carduus  arvensis). 

67 


68        FARM    GRASSES    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES 

Kentucky  blue-grass,  it  often  contains  dog-fennel  (An- 
themis  cotula) ,  peppergrass,  and  five-finger. 

Redtop  seed  usually  contains  but  few  weed  seeds, 
among  the  most  common  being  slender-rush  and  sor- 
rel. ^(The  seeds  of  some  of  the  most  common  weeds 
are  shown  in  Fig.  14.) 

ADULTERATION 

A  few  of  our  common  grass-seeds  are  frequently 
and  wilfully  adulterated.  The  most  important  of  these 
are  orchard-grass  and  Kentucky  blue-grass.  Orchard- 
grass  is  most  often  adulterated  with  meadow-fescue, 
although  English  rye-grass  is  sometimes  used.  These 
seeds  cost  about  half  as  much  as  orchard-grass,  and 
resemble  it  so  closely  that  the  adulteration  is  only 
detedled  on  close  examination.  The  velvet-grass  seed 
always  found  in  New  Zealand  orchard-grass  is  har- 
vested with  it  and  not  mixed  intentionally. 

But  few  seed-dealers  can  distinguish  Canada  from 
Kentucky  blue-grass  seed.  These  two  resemble  each 
other  so  closely  that  a  careful  comparative  study  with 
a  hand-lens  is  necessary  before  a  person  can  separate 
them. 

When  a  buyer  is  offered  two  lots  of  seed  as  Ken- 
tucky blue-grass,  one  containing  a  large  percentage  of 
Canada,  and  the  other  pure  Kentucky,  he  will  usually 
choose  the  adulterated  sample,  because  it  is  brighter 
and  cleaner,  and  is  offered  at  a  slightly  lower  price. 
Although  but  little  Canada  blue-grass  seed  is  sold  as 
such  in  the  United  States,  there  is  an  annual  importa- 
tion of  from  450,000  to  750,000  Ibs. ,  which  is  pradli- 
cally  all  sold  as  Kentucky  blue-grass  seed. 


THE    SEED  69 

Rhode  Island  produces  what  little  Rhode  Island 
bent  is  harvested  in  this  country.  Considerable  creep- 
ing bent  is  imported,  and  often  substituted  for  the 
Rhode  Island. 

The  seed  of  the  annual  sweet  vernal  is  practically 
indistinguishable  from  that  of  the  true  perennial  sweet 
vernal,  and  the  use  of  the  cheap  annual  seed  as  an 
adulterant  is  frequent.  Red  top  sells  for  about  double 
the  price  of  timothy,  and  very  often  redtop  carries  from 
15  to  20  per  cent,  of  timothy  as  an  adulterant.  The 
adulteration  is  likely  to  go  unnoticed  unless  the  sam- 
ple is  carefully  examined. 

GUARANTEED   SEEDS 

The  selling  of  guaranteed  seeds  is  practically  un- 
known in  this  country.  Instead,  all  of  the  principal 
seedsmen  print  on  their  seed  packages  and  bills  the 
following  disclaimer  clause,  adopted  by  the  American 
Seed  Trade  Association: 


gives  no  warranty,  expressed  or  implied,  as  to 

description,  quality,  productiveness,  or  any  other  matter  of 
any  seeds,  bulbs,  or  plants  we  send  out,  and  we  will  not  be  in 
any  way  responsible  for  the  crop.  If  the  purchaser  does  not 
accept  the  goods  on  these  terms,  they  are  at  once  to  be  re- 
turned." 


The  use  of  such  a  clause  is  in  sharp  contrast  to  the 
practice  adopted  by  some  of  the  English  seed  firms. 
For  example,  James  Hunter,  of  Chester,  England, 
prints  in  his  price-list  for  1904  a  table  showing  the 
guaranteed  percentage  of  germination,  and  the  num- 


70        FARM    GRASSES    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES 


her  of  germinating  seeds  in  a  pound.     The  following 
are  taken  from  his  list : 


KIND  OF  SEED 

Germination 
Per  cent. 

Germinating 
Seeds 
Number  in  i  Ib. 

Blue-grass  Kentucky 

85 

i  581,000 

Meadow-fescue     

99 

233,640 

Meadow-  foxtail 

90 

441  ooo 

Orchard-grass    

QS 

404  700 

Rye-grass  English 

96 

214  080 

Rye-grass,  Italian              .          .          ... 

98 

264  600 

Tall  fescue  

96 

236  1  60 

Tall  oat-grass                     .  . 

QO 

124  200 

Timothy          

98 

1,293,600 

Sweet  vernal                                           .   . 

80 

590  400 

Since  the  American  seedsmen  give  no  form  of  guar- 
antee with  their  seeds,  buyers  must  determine  for 
themselves  the  quality  of  seed  offered  for  sale. 

There  is  a  great  need  for  more  regularly  established 
seed-testing  stations,  where  farmers  may  send  samples 
of  seed  for  analysis,  and  so  know  the  relative  value  of 
seeds  offered  on  the  market,  and  consequently  secure 
the  quality  of  seed  desired  at  a  reasonable  price. 

SEED   CONTROL   AND   SEED   TESTING 

While  properly  framed  seed  laws  would  tend  to 
improve  the  quality  of  seed  on  the  market,  farmers  are 
not  helpless  in  the  absence  of  such  laws.  Good  seeds 
will  be  supplied  whenever  the  buyer  demands  them  if 
the  dealer  knows  that  what  he  offers  is  to  be  tested 
and  the  purchase  made  according  to  the  result  of  the 
test.  This  is  the  system  which  has  improved  the  qual- 
ity of  seeds  in  Europe,  and  any  one  can  send  samples 
to  any  of  the  numerous  European  seed-testing  stations 


THE    SEED  71 

and  have  tests  made.  Fertilizer  inspection  is  so  thor- 
oughly established  in  the  United  States  that  many  of 
the  State  agricultural  experiment  stations  receive  a 
considerable  part  of  their  income  for  their  chemical 
department — at  least,  from  the  analysis  of  fertilizers. 
While  a  similar  system  of  inspection  may  not  be  prac- 
tical with  reference  to  the  sale  of  seeds,  it  is  more  im- 
portant to  know  the  quality  of  the  seeds  to  be  sown 
than  the  analysis  of  the  fertilizer  to  be  used. 

The  subject  of  seed  testing  has  received  little  at- 
tention in  the  United  States  as  compared  with  that 
given  it  in  Europe.  Hicks*  says,  under  the  heading, 
"  Seed  Control  in  Europe  ": 

' '  European  seed  control  may  be  said  to  have  origi- 
nated in  1869,  when  Dr.  Nobbe,  director  of  the  experi- 
ment station  at  Tharand,  Saxony,  began  to  devote  his 
attention  to  the  impurities  and  low  germinating  power 
of  many  commercial  seeds  for  which  the  German 
farmer  was  paying  fancy  prices.  The  publication  of 
the  results  obtained  by  him  excited  much  comment 
and  laid  the  foundation  for  the  present  extensive  sys- 
tem of  European  seed  control.  At  the  present  time 
there  are  seed-control  stations  in  all  of  the  principal 
countries  of  Europe,  more  than  forty  existing  in  Ger- 
many alone.  In  some  cases  these  are  distinct  institu- 
tions, but  frequently  this  work  is  done  in  connection 
with  agricultural  experiment  stations,  the  majority  of 
which  devote  more  or  less  attention  to  the  subject. 
Some  countries  and  States  have  general  laws  concern- 
ing fraud  which  may  be  used  to  cover  seed  adultera- 


*  Hicks,  G.  H.     "  Pure  Seed  Investigation."     Year-book,  United  States 
Department  of  Agriculture,  1894. 


72         FARM    GRASSES    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES 

tion,  but,  so  far  as  we  have  been  able  to  learn,  there 
are  no  laws  requiring  English  or  Continental  seedsmen 
to  guarantee  their  wares.  The  work  of  the  seed-- 
control stations,  however,  has  created  such  a  public 
sentiment  in  favor  of  pure  seed  that  the  best  class  of 
dealers  submit  samples  of  their  seeds  to  be  tested  by 
the  stations,  which  furnish,  for  a  stipulated  price,  a 
guarantee  of  the  vitality  and  purity  of  the  seed  from 
which  the  samples  were  taken." 

Several  of  the  State  agricultural  experiment  sta- 
tions have  given  more  or  less  attention  to  seed  testing, 
but  in  most  cases  the  facilities  for  doing  the  work  are 
limited  and  the  total  amount  done  is  small.  In  1894 
seed  testing  was  begun  by  the  United  States  Depart- 
ment of  Agriculture,  at  Washington,  D.  C.,  and  has 
been  continued  by  the  Seed  Laboratory  since  that 
time.  Samples  of  seed  sent  to  this  laboratory  for  test 
will  be  examined  for  mechanical  purity  and  tested  for 
germination  free  of  charge  for  purchasers  of  seed,  pro- 
vided samples  are  accompanied  by  a  statement  giving 
the  name  and  address  of  the  firm  from  which  the  seed 
was  purchased,  and  the  price  paid.  While  the  farmer 
is  able  to  judge  the  general  quality  of  a  sample  of  tim- 
othy by  a  careful  examination,  he  is  not  able  to  detedl 
adulterations  of  the  less  common  grasses  or  estimate 
the  per  cent,  of  the  seed  which  will  grow. 

HOME   TESTING 

Many  of  the  more  common  grass-seeds,  such  as 
timothy,  orchard-grass,  and  millet,  can  be  tested  for 
germination  at  home.  The  simple  home-tester  shown 
in  Fig.  15  can  be  made  and  used  by  any  one. 


THE    SEED 


73 


Mix  the  seed  thoroughly  and  count  out  100  or  200 
seeds  just  as  they  come,  making  no  selection.  Put 
them  between  a  fold  of  cotton  flannel  or  some  similar 
cloth,  taking  care  not  to  let  the  seeds  touch  one  an- 
other. Lay  the  cloth  on  a  plate,  moisten  it  well,  but 
do  not  saturate  it,  cover  with  another  plate,  and  keep 


FIG.    15 — HOME-MADE    SEED-TESTER 
A ,  Closed ;  B,  Open 

in  a  warm  room  where  the  temperature  will  not  go 
above  86°  F.  The  cloth  should  be  moistened  from 
time  to  time,  and  the  sprouted  seeds  counted  and  re- 
moved every  day.  Grass- seeds  are  not  as  easy  to  test 
as  clover  and  many  of  the  vegetable  seeds,  for  they 
require  much  more  exact  conditions,  needing  an  alter- 
nating temperature.  If  a  sample  of  grass-seed  tests 
well  by  use  of  the  simple  method  mentioned  above,  it 


74        FARM    GRASSES    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES 


is  safe  to  assume  that  it  will  grow  well  if  sown,  but  if 
it  does  not  germinate  well,  the  seed  should  not  be  con- 
demned, as  the  conditions  for  germination  may  not 
have  been  right,  and  a  sample  should  be  sent  for  an 
official*  test,  either  to  one  of  the  State  agricultural 
experiment  stations,  or  to  the  United  States  Depart- 
ment of  Agriculture,  Washington,  D.  C.  The  follow- 
ing table  *  gives  the  temperature  at  which  germination 
tests  should  be  made,  and  the  length  of  time  required 
to  make  tests : 


KIND    OF  SEED 

Temperature  f 
Degrees,  F. 

DAY   FOR   MAKING 
GERMINATION   REPORT 

Preliminary 

Final 

Hermuda  grass  

68-95 
68-86 
68-86 
68-86 
68-86 
68-86 
68-86 
68-86 
68-86 

10 

14 
5 
5 
3 
6 

5 
6 

5 

21 

28 
10 

10 

6 
H 
8 
14 
8 

Blue-grass 

Brome-grass  

Meadow-fescue  

Millet. 

Orchard-grass   

Redtop 

Rye-grass         ...               .    . 

Timothy  .   

*  Circular  No.  34  (revised),  Office  of  Experiment  Stations,  United  States 
Department  of  Agriculture,  "  Rules  and  Regulations  for  Seed  Testing." 

t  Seeds  should  be  kept  at  the  higher  temperature  for  six  hours,  and  at 
the  lower  temperature  for  eighteen  hours  each  day. 


VI 

TIMOTHY  (Phleum  pratense) 

BMOTHY  (Fig.  16)  is  frequently  known  as  herd's 
grass  in  New  England,  though  elsewhere, 
especially  in  the  Middle  and  South  Atlantic 
States,  this  latter  name  is  applied  to  redtop. 
Timothy  is  by  far  the  most  important  hay  grass  in 
America.  In  spite  of  the  fact  that  chemists  tell 
us  it  is  one  of  the  least  nutritious  of  the  grasses, 
timothy,  or  mixtures  in  which  it  is  the  leading  con- 
stituent, constitutes  nearly  three-fourths  of  the  total 
area  of  tame  hay  and  a  much  larger  proportion  of  the 
market  hay  of  the  country.  Even  in  the  South,  where 
it  is  not  grown  to  any  considerable  extent,  it  is  the 
principal  hay  on  the  markets  of  all  the  larger  cities; 
in  fact,  no  other  true  grass  is  recognized  as  a  standard 
hay,  except  in  restricted  localities.  There  must  be 
some  reason  for  this  apparent  discrepancy  between  the 
chemical  composition  of  timothy  hay  and  its  standing 
on  the  markets. 

In  the  first  place,  this  grass  has  the  best  seed  habits 
of  any  hay  or  pasture  plant  known.  The  seed  from 
an  acre  of  it  will  sow  a  larger  area  than  almost  any 
other  grass.  The  seed  is  easily  harvested  and  retains 
its  vitality  remarkably  well.  Being  entirely  unlike 
any  other  common  seed,  both  in  size  and  appear- 
ance, its  purity  can  readily  be  judged  by  the  farmer. 

75 


FIG.    16 — TIMOTHY 


TIMOTHY  77 

The  hay  is  easily  cured,  bears  handling  well,  and  may 
be  cut  any  time  between  blossoming  and  the  ripen- 
ing of  the  seed  with  comparatively  little  difference  in 
the  quality  of  the  hay — at  least,  for  horse  feed.  For 
these  reasons,  farmers  prefer  timothy  to  other  grasses. 
On  the  other  hand,  timothy  hay  is  exceedingly  pala- 
table, particularly  to  horses,  and  it  is  the  demand  for 
horse  feed  in  the  cities  that  fixes  the  price  of  hay  in 
this  country. 

Again,  horses  that  are  kept  for  hire  are  frequently 
driven  to  the  limit  of  endurance  after  a  full  feed. 
Such  horses  must  have  feed  that  will  digest  readily 
and  not  produce  derangement  of  the  digestive  organs 
under  these  circumstances.  For  this  purpose  timothy 
hay  has  no  equal.  It  is  also  probably  true  that  too 
much  stress  has  been  placed  by  recent  writers  on  the 
need  of  protein  (nitrogenous  material)  in  feeding- 
stuffs.  A  few  years  ago  it  was  frequently  the  custom 
to  value  feeding-stuffs  by  the  amount  of  protein  they 
contained.  Timothy,  being  low  in  nitrogenous  con- 
stituents, was  said  to  have  little  nutrition  in  it.  It 
should  be  remembered,  however,  that  an  idle  animal 
needs  very  little  protein,  while  an  animal  at  work 
usually  gets  the  bulk  of  its  protein  from  grain.  Ex- 
perience has  abundantly  shown  that  timothy  hay  alone 
is  an  excellent  ration  for  an  idle  horse,  or  even  a  horse 
with  moderate  exercise.  These  facts  seem  to  justify 
the  important  place  that  this  grass  occupies  in  Ameri- 
can agriculture.  There  are  circumstances  under  which 
other  grasses  deserve  much  more  attention  than  they 
thus  far  have  received 'in  this  country,  as  indicated 
elsewhere  in  these  pages. 


78         FARM    GRASSES    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES 

The  outstanding  importance  of  timothy  is  due 
largely  to  the  fact  that,  except  in  the  alfalfa  regions 
of  the  West,  nearly  all  our  hay  is  produced  in  the 
region  to  which  timothy  is  best  adapted.  Perhaps 
hay  production  may  be  largely  confined  to  the  timothy 
region  because  no  other  grass  has  been  found  capable 
of  taking  its  place  in  other  sections.  Certain  it  is 
that,  except  in  the  Far  West,  hay  production  and  live- 
stock farming  are  nearly  confined  to  the  region  of 
timothy,  clover,  and  blue-grass,  all  of  which  have 
nearly  the  same  distribution. 

The  lack  of  forage  plants  and  grasses,  and,  conse- 
quently, of  live  stock,  in  the  Southern  States  is  prob- 
ably due  more  to  the  cotton-plant  than  to  any  other 
one  cause.  Should  the  cotton  boll  weevil  render 
cotton  unprofitable  in  the  South,  there  is  abundant 
reason  to  believe  that  plenty  of  good  grasses  may  be 
grown  to  make  stock-raising  profitable  south  of  the 
timothy  region.  It  is  an  interesting  fact,  referred  to 
earlier  in  these  pages,  that  nearly  all  the  grass  litera- 
ture issued  by  the  experiment  stations  of  this  country 
comes  from  those  States  that  lie  either  on  the  border 
of  the  timothy  region  or  entirely  outside  of  it.  In  the 
timothy  region  (where  clover  and  blue-grass  also 
abound)  the  grass  question  ceased  to  be  a  pressing  one 
before  the  experiment  stations  were  established. 

Fig.  17  shows  approximately  the  distribution  of 
timothy  in  this  country.  This  map  was  constructed 
as  follows  :  On  a  county  map  of  the  United  States  a 
large  dot  was  placed  in  each  county  showing  over  5,000 
acres  of  "  other  tame  grasses"  (mainly  timothy,  and 
mixtures  in  which  timothy  is  the  leading  constituent), 


80        FARM    GRASSES    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES 

according  to  the  census  of  1900.  In  counties  having 
from  500  to  1,500  acres,  a  small  dot  was  placed  ;  two 
small  dots  were  placed  in  counties  having  from  1,500 
to  2,500  acres,  and  so  on.  The  border  of  the  real 
Timothy  Region  is  thus  seen  to  traverse  central  Dela- 
ware and  central  Maryland.  It  includes  in  the  timo- 
thy region  the  mountainous  parts  of  Virginia,  a  small 
portion  of  northwestern  North  Carolina  and  of  north- 
eastern Tennessee.  Southwestern  West  Virginia  is 
excluded.  Thence  the  line  runs  irregularly  through 
northern  Kentucky,  southern  Illinois,  and  southern 
Missouri.  Thence  it  runs  northward,  including  one 
tier  of  counties  in  southern  Kansas  and  three  tiers  in 
the  north,  and  cutting  across  the  southeast  corner  of 
Nebraska.  It  then  follows  the  west  line  of  Iowa, 
nearly  to  Minnesota,  after  which  it  takes  an  irregular 
course  across  Minnesota  and  Wisconsin.  Timothy 
does  very  well  in  the  eastern  parts  of  Kansas,  Ne- 
braska, and  the  Dakotas,  but  the  enormous  quantities 
of  wild  hay  cut  in  those  States  (see  Fig.  3)  renders 
timothy  comparatively  unimportant  there.  A  few 
large  dots,  scattered  here  and  there  near  the  border 
line,  and  quite  generally  in  the  Northern  Rocky 
Mountain  and  Pacific  Coast  States,  indicate  centres  in 
which  timothy  is  more  or  less  important.  South  and 
west  of  this  border  line  timothy  is  of  little  impor- 
tance, with  the  exceptions  noted.  It  cannot  stand  the 
summer  climate  of  the  South,  nor  the  arid  or  semi-arid 
conditions  of  the  West.  North  and  east  of  this  line  it 
has  heretofore  been  the  one  great  hay  grass.  Outside 
of  it,  it  will,  for  the  most  part,  thrive  only  under  the 
most  favorable  conditions.  In  the  Northwest  the  su- 


TIMOTHY  8 1 

premacy  of  timothy  has  been  threatened  in  recent  years 
by  brome-grass,  and  alfalfa  is  now  invading  the  whole 
timothy  region.  In  Montana,  northern  Utah,  and 
southern  Idaho,  timothy  thrives  well  on  irrigated  land, 
though  it  is  not  usually  grown  where  alfalfa  succeeds. 
In  the  mountain  valleys  of  all  these  States,  and  of 
Washington,  Oregon,  and  northern  California,  it  is 
again  the  leading  hay  grass  on  cultivated  lands. 

The  following  notes  from  experiment  station  pub- 
lications and  agricultural  papers  in  the  border  States 
indicate  the  position  of  timothy  in  these  States  : 

South  Dakota  Bulletin  45. — A  paying  crop  through- 
out the  Big  Stone  Basin  and  the  Sioux  Valley ;  endures 
the  cold  and  dry  freezing  of  the  Dakota  winters,  but 
suffers  badly  from  the  hot  sun  of  July  and  August. 
Generally  successful  over  the  eastern  part  of  the 
State.  Does  well  also  in  some  parts  of  the  Black  Hills 
region. 

Kansas  Bulletin  102. — Succeeds  well  in  eastern 
Kansas,  but  is  uncertain  in  other  parts  of  the  State. 

Arkansas  Bulletins  29  and  36. — Of  little  account, 
except  on  the  best  clay  soils  of  northwest  Arkansas  and 
on  the  best  bottom-lands  of  eastern  Arkansas,  but 
grown  generally  in  northwestern  part  of  State  because 
of  its  reputation  elsewhere. 

Alabama  Canebrake  Station  Bulletin  9. — Grew 
well  during  fall  and  winter,  but  could  not  stand  warm 
weather  that  came  in  May.  Not  a  pound  of  hay  could 
be  cut  from  the  plat. 

Southern  Planter,  January,  1903. — Makes  but  one 
crop  in  the  South,  and  summer  will  kill  it  out.  Better 
sow  redtop  and  meadow- fescue. 


82         FARM    GRASSES    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES 

North  Carolina  Bulletin  108. — Sown  in  fall,  it  gives 
a  crop  of  hay  in  May  or  June,  but  frequently  does  not 
survive  the  heat  of  summer. 

Tennessee  Bulletin,  Vol.  IX.,  No.  2.— The  best 
timothy  lands  in  Tennessee  are  in  the  eastern  valley, 
the  central  basin,  and  the  northern  and  western  coun- 
ties of  west  Tennessee.  Adapted  only  to  rich,  moist, 
alluvial  soils.  (This  last  statement  applies  to  all  the 
border  States. ) 

Kentucky  Bulletin  87. — Excellent  on  good  loam 
soils.  Will  not  thrive  on  light  loam.  Very  little  after- 
math. Generally  sown  with  clover.  Usually  grown 
in  the  Blue-Grass  Region,  in  the  mountainous  counties 
of  the  east,  and  on  the  strong  alluvial  soils  of  the  ex- 
treme western  part  of  the  State. 

How  different  this  from  a  Missouri  Bulletin,  and 
echoed  in  most  parts  of  the  timothy  region  proper: 
4 'The  only  hay  grass  grown  to  any  extent  in  the 
State." 

In  these  border  States  and  beyond  them  timothy 
succeeds  only  on^rich,  moist,  alluvial  soil.  Even  in  the 
timothy  region  it  is  particularly  adapted  to  this  class 
of  soils,  but  by  no  means  confined  to  them. 

SEEDING 

In  the  heart  of  the  timothy  region  it  is  usual  to 
sow  timothy  with  wheat  in  the  fall,  adding  clover  in 
late  winter  or  early  spring.  The  usual  amount  of  seed 
used  is  8  to  12  quarts  (12  to  18  Ibs.)  of  timothy  and 
about  8  Ibs.  of  clover.  The  timothy-seed  is  usually 
placed  in  a  special  grass-seed  compartment  of  the  grain 
drill.  Some  farmers  allow  the  timothy-seed  to  fall  in 


TIMOTHY  83 

front  of  the  drill  hoes,  so  that  it  is  covered  by  them  ; 
others  allow  the  grass-seed  to  fall  behind  the  hoes, 
leaving  it  to  be  covered  by  rain.  It  is  generally  recog- 
nized that  the  latter  is  not  the  best  method  of  securing 
a  stand  of  timothy,  but  from  Illinois  eastward  it  is  fairly 
certain  to  result  in  a  good  catch.  In  years  of  light 
rainfall  it  sometimes  happens  that  there  is  not  enough 
moisture  for  both  grain  and  grass,  and  the  grass  suf- 
fers. Sometimes  also,  when  the  grain  is  cut,  a  spell 
of  hot,  dry  weather  kills  the  tender  grass,  which  has 
previously  been  shaded  by  the  grain.  This  is  particu- 
larly the  case  if  the  grain  is  allowed  to  stand  until  it  is 
dead  ripe,  as  at  harvest-time  the  season  of  dry,  hot 
weather  is  close  at  hand. 

Even  where  wheat  is  not  a  very  satisfactory  crop, 
as  on  the  rich,  black  prairie  soils  of  northeastern  Illi- 
nois, some  farmers  sow  a  little  wheat,  in  order,  as  they 
say,  to  have  a  good  place  to  sow  timothy.  On  this  soil 
timothy  is  not  as  popular  as  it  once  was,  partly  because 
wheat  is  less  grown  than  formerly,  and  partly  because 
the  development  of  beef-raising  has  created  a  greater 
demand  for  pure  clover  hay  and  lessened  the  useful- 
ness of  timothy  on  the  farm.  Doubtless,  also,  the 
abundance  of  hay  in  the  Middle  West  more  than  sup- 
plies the  city  demand,  and  a  smaller  proportion  of  the 
hay  growers  grow  hay  for  the  markets  than  is  the  case 
farther  east.  Since  most  of  them  use  the  hay  on  their 
own  farms,  and  as  they  usually  have  a  larger  number 
of  cattle  than  horses  to  feed,  they  grow  more  clover 
and  less  timothy  than  the  farmers  of  sections  farther 
east,  where  hay  is  largely  grown  for  horses  in  the 
cities. 


84        FARM    GRASSES    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES 

It  is  well  known  that  when  timothy  is  sown  in  the 
fall  with  grain  it  does  not  make  a  crop  the  next  year. 
But  it  is  not  so  well  known,  especially  in  the  Middle 
West,  that  when  timothy  is  sown  in  late  summer  or 
early  fall  without  a  nurse  crop  it  makes  the  best  crop 
of  its  life  the  next  year.  In  this  case  clover  should 
be  sown  at  the  same  time  as  the  timothy,  but  there 
are  doubtless  large  areas  in  Missouri,  Iowa,  Illinois, 
and  perhaps  also  in  Minnesota  and  Wisconsin,  where 
clover  would  winter-kill  when  sown  in  this  manner. 
Since  this  method  is  so  successful  in  the  Eastern  States 
it  might  be  well  for  Western  farmers  to  try  it  more  ex- 
tensively. Oat-stubble  would  be  particularly  adapted 
for  this  purpose,  as  the  grass  and  clover  could  be  sown 
after  oats  early  enough  to  get  a  good  start  before  win- 
ter. If  the  method  proves  satisfactory  it  would  enable 
the  timothy  grower  to  dispense  with  wheat  in  the  ro- 
tation, particularly  where  wheat  is  grown  mainly  to 
have  a  place  in  the  rotation  to  sow  timothy. 

In  New  England,  New  York,  and  Pennsylvania 
three  methods  of  starting  timothy  are  in  vogue.  Many 
farmers  use  the  method  described  above — namely,  of 
seeding  the  timothy  in  the  fall  with  wheat  or  rye, 
adding  clover  in  early  spring.  Both  East  and  West 
the  time  chosen  for  sowing  clover  in  this  manner  is  in 
very  early  spring,  at  a  time  when  the  ground  is  lightly 
frozen  and  cracked  "  honeycomb  "  fashion.  The  seed 
falls,  or  is  blown,  into  these  cracks,  and  is  thus  cov- 
ered when  the  ground  thaws.  This  is  usually  in  late 
February  or  early  March. 

Another  method,  used  extensively  by  the  most 
progressive  farmers,  is  to  sow  all  the  grass  and  clover 


TIMOTHY  85 

seed  together  in  late  summer  or  early  fall  (usually  late 
in  August)  without  a  nurse  crop.  This  gives  an 
abundant  harvest  of  hay  the  next  year.  On  soils 
where  there  has  been  great  difficulty  in  securing  a 
catch  of  clover  by  the  old  method  in  recent  years  this 
method  gives  excellent  results.  How  far  west  this 
practice  would  be  successful  the  writer  does  not  know, 
but  it  is  certainly  worth  trying  in  Ohio  and  Indiana. 
Where  this  method  prevails  redtop  and  alsike  are 
quite  generally  added  to  the  mixture.  The  amount  of 
alsike-seed  used  in  such  mixtures  is  usually  only  one 
or  two  pounds.  The  amount  of  redtop  varies  with 
different  farmers,  from  a  couple  of  pounds  to  half  a 
bushel  of  seed  in  the  chaff.  These  two  grasses  are 
quite  generally  used  all  over  the  East.  The  most  suc- 
cessful farmer  the  writer  has  ever  known  uses  the 
above  method  of  seeding  grass,  his  mixture  contain- 
ing all  four  of  the  grasses  mentioned.  He  sows  the 
last  week  in  August,  and  cuts  three  times  the  next 
year. 

The  third  method,  sometimes  met  with  in  New 
England,  is  to  sow  all  the  grass-seed  in  the  spring, 
either  with  or  without  grain.  In  this  case  no  crop  of 
hay  is  secured  till  the  next  year.  It  is  not  a  plan  to 
be  recommended  for  general  use  where  either  of  the 
others  is  feasible. 

South  of  the  timothy  region  proper  early  fall  sow- 
ing, without  a  nurse  crop,  is  by  all  means  the  best. 
In  this  section  it  is  also  well  to  add  some  other  peren- 
nial grass,  such  as  orchard-grass,  meadow-fescue,  or 
tall  meadow  oat-grass.  These  are  better  adapted  to 
the  region  than  timothy,  and,  except  on  the  very  best 


86        FARM    GRASSES    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES 

soils,  might  replace  it  altogether.  They  are  also  bet- 
ter adapted  to  sowing  with  clover,  since  they  mature 
at  the  same  time  that  clover  does.  Spring  sowing  is 
particularly  objectionable  in  the  South,  and  the  farther 
south  the  more  undesirable  it  becomes.  In  the  first 
place,  spring-sown  grass  is  likely  to  be  taken  by  weeds, 
especially  by  crab-grass.  It  is  also  liable  to  be  killed 
by  the  summer  heat. 

On  the  northwestern  prairies  the  best  practice  is  to 
prepare  land  in  fall  and  sow  grass  and  clover  in  spring 
without  a  nurse  crop.  There  is  usually  not  moisture 
enough  for  both  grain  and  grass,  while  fall -sown  grass 
would  hardly  stand  the  rigor  of  the  first  winter.  The 
same  is  generally  true  on  the  irrigated  lands  of 
Wyoming  and  Montana.  On  the  upland  prairies  of 
eastern  Washington,  eastern  Oregon,  and  northern 
Idaho,  spring  sowing  is  necessary,  for  during  the  win- 
ter there  are  liable  to  occur  periods  of  clear  weather 
in  which  the  ground  freezes  at  night  and  thaws  in  day- 
time, a  condition  quickly  fatal  to  young  grass.  But 
in  this  section  the  land  cannot  be  prepared  in  autumn 
with  safety  for  two  reasons  :  first,  the  winter  rains 
would  wash  it,  for  the  country  is  quite  rolling; 
secondly,  the  dry  winds  of  early  spring  would  quickly 
rob  the  bare  soil  of  its  moisture,  while  a  covering  of 
wheat-stubble  prevents  this.  The  best  plan  is  to  plow 
the  land  in  early  spring,  harrow  it  down,  and  sow  the 
seed  at  once.  At  low  altitudes  in  this  sedlion,  as 
around  Walla  Walla  and  Pendleton,  fall  sowing  is 
successful.  In  western  Washington,  western  Oregon, 
and  northern  California  timothy  is  nearly  always  sown 
in  the  fall.  On  sandy  land  in  that  section  clover  may 


TIMOTHY  87 

be  sown  in  either  fall  or  spring,  but  on  clay  land  it  is 
always  sown  in  spring. 

Timothy  sown  alone  or  with  mammoth  clover 
yields  only  one  cutting  a  season.  When  mixed  with 
common  red  clover  two  crops  a  year  are  cut,  the  first 
consisting  of  both  clover  and  timothy,  the  second  of 
nearly  pure  clover. 

In  many  localities,  particularly  where  timothy  hay 
is  grown  for  market,  it  is  customary  to  leave  a  meadow 
down  for  many  years.  In  such  cases  the  yield  seldom 
exceeds  a  ton  and  a  quarter  a  year  after  the  first  crop. 
This  practice  is  hard  on  the  soil,  and  cannot  be  con- 
sidered high-class  farming.  Yet,  if  kept  free  from 
weeds,  pastured  very  lightly,  and  frequently  top- 
dressed  with  good  manure  or  with  a  complete  fertil- 
izer, fairly  good  yields  may  be  mantained  for  many 
years. 

FEED  VALUE   OF  TIMOTHY 

The  value  of  timothy  hay  for  different  kinds  of 
stock  depends  on  the  stage  at  which  it  is  cut.  For 
cattle  it  should  be  cut  just  after  it  is  through  bloom- 
ing. When  the  stamens  of  the  timothy  flower  have 
just  protruded  from  the  glumes,  it  is  popularly  said  to 
be  in  the  first  bloom.  When  the  stamens  have  burst 
and  shed  their  pollen,  and  hang  limp  and  empty  on 
their  slender  stalks,  it  is  said  to  be  in  second  bloom. 
This,  or  a  day  or  two  later,  is  the  stage  to  cut  it  for 
cattle.  During  the  next  week  or  ten  days,  after  reach- 
ing the  second  bloom,  timothy  rapidly  ctianges  in 
character  and  flavor.  Horses  eat  it  more  readily  if  cut 
when  the  seed  is  about  grown.  It  is  also  less  washy 


88         FARM    GRASSES    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES 

when  cut  at  this  late  stage,  an  advantage  for  horses, 
but  a  disadvantage  for  cattle.  The  hay  is  richer  when 
mixed  with  clover,  but  unless  the  clover  is  bright  and 
green  horsemen  object  to  feeding  it.  Unfortunately, 
clover  (the  common  red  clover)  ripens  a  week  or  more 
ahead  of  timothy,  and  is,  therefore,  liable  to  be  more 
or  less  over-mature  when  the  hay  is  cut. 

In  general  timothy  hay  is  better  for  horses  than  it 
is  for  cattle,  though  when  cut  early,  and  especially 
when  mixed  with  clover,  it  is  excellent  feed  for  cattle 
that  are  supplied  with  plenty  of  protein  in  their  grain 
feed.  As  already  stated,  it  is  the  demand  for  horse 
feed  in  the  cities  that  fixes  the  price  of  hay  in  this 
country.  Hence  timothy  is  the  standard,  and  fre- 
quently almost  the  only  hay  on  our  markets.  In  only 
two  cases  known  to  the  author  does  any  other  hay  lead 
timothy  in  favor  with  the  horsemen.  These  are  the 
bluestem  {Agropyron  ocddentale)  of  Montana  and 
southeastern  Colorado,  and  South  Park  hay  (Juncus 
balticus)  in  Denver,  Colorado.  Brome-grass  hay  is 
perhaps  the  equal  of  timothy  hay  for  horses,  but  it  is 
as  yet  hardly  known  on  the  markets. 

AS  A  PASTURE  GRASS 

As  previously  stated,  timothy  meadows  are  fre- 
quently converted  into  pastures  at  the  end  of  the  second 
year,  and  frequently  also  the  slight  aftermath  is  pas- 
tured where  hay  is  cut.  It  does  not  stand  grazing  as 
wdl  as  many  other  grasses.  Outside  of  the  limits  of 
the  timothy  region  proper,  as  in  the  Dakotas,  in  Ten- 
nessee, etc.,  the  best  authorities  advise  against  pastur- 
ing it  at  all. 


TIMOTHY  89 

YIELD   OF   SEED 

The  yield  of  all  grass  seeds  is  very  variable.  Three 
bushels  of  timothy-seed  (a  bushel  weighs  about  45 
Ibs.)  is  considered  a  low  yield,  five  is  fair,  and  eight 
is  good.  Yields  of  ten  or  twelve  bushels  are  sometimes 
obtained.  When  sown  for  purposes  of  seed-growing 
four  to  vSix  quarts  of  seed  (six  to  nine  pounds)  only 
is  UvSed.  The  price  of  the  seed  varies  considerably, 
but  it  is  always  so  low  that  it  costs  less  to  seed  an  acre 
of  timothy  than  of  any  other  grass.  This  is  probably 
one  reason  why  American  farmers  grow  timothy  almost 
to  the  exclusion  of  other  hay  grasses. 


VII 

THE  BLUE-GRASSES 
KENTUCKY    BLUE-GRASS   (Poa  pratensis) 

"Ever  smelt  Kentucky  grass, 

Or  heard  about  its  blueness  ? 
Seems  as  if  the  whole  blamed  world 
Was  bursting  out  with  newness. 

"  Skies  and  folks  alike  all  smiles — 

Gracious  !  you  are  lucky 

If  you  spend  a  day  in  June 

Down  in  old  Kentucky." 

—  ALFRED  MUNSON. 

LITE-GRASS  (June  grass,  Kentucky  blue-grass), 
Fig.  1 8,  is  the  standard  pasture-grass  of  the 
country — at  least,  in  those  sections  where 
tame  pastures  are  mostly  found.  When  the 
American  farmer  speaks  of  grass  he  usually  means 
blue-grass.  It  is  the  one  grass  celebrated  in  song  and 
story.  In  the  Blue-Grass  Region  of  northern  Kentucky, 
and  in  many  parts  of  Missouri,  Iowa,  Illinois,  Indiana, 
and  Ohio,  blue-grass  pastures  are  the  pride  of  the 
thrifty  farmer.  Its  palatability  to  all  classes  of  stock, 
the  evenness  of  the  sod  it  forms,  the  beautiful  color  of 
its  verdure,  and  its  increasing  productiveness  with 
age,  if  properly  handled,  all  conspire  to  make  blue- 
grass  the  king  of  pasture-grasses. 

It  is  in  the  Blue-Grass  Region  that  fine  horses  and 
90 


FIG.     l8 — KENTUCKY    BLUE-GRASS 


92         FARM    GRASSES    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES 

beef-cattle  attain  their  highest  development  in  this 
country.  Were  it  not  for  its  habit  of  remaining  dor- 
mant during  the  dry,  warm  months  of  summer,  the 
length  of  time  required  to  secure  a  good  stand  of  it, 
and  its  comparatively  low  yield  of  forage,  blue-grass 
would  indeed  leave  nothing  to  be  desired  as  a  pasture- 
grass  on  soils  to  which  it  is  suited.  This  is  rather  a 
formidable  array  of  objections  to  bring  against  the 
"king  of  pasture  grasses,"  but  they  are  real,  and 
the  very  general  dependence  on  blue-grass  for  pastures 
leads  many  American  farmers  to  the  conclusion  that 
they  cannot  afford  to  keep  good  land  in  pasture.  This 
is  particularly  true  in  sections  where  the  dairy  industry 
is  important.  But  in  those  portions  of  the  country  in 
which  the  production  of  beef  is  the  leading  feature  of 
farming,  blue-grass  pastures  occupy  much  of  the  most 
productive  land;  in  fact,  good  pastures  are  indispens- 
able to  the  economical  production  of  first-class  beef 
and  in  raising  horses  on  a  large  scale.  For  this  reason 
we  find  these  two  industries  most  highly  developed  in 
the  sections  where  blue-grass  is  at  its  best. 

Throughout  the  southern  portion  of  its  distribution 
this  grass  is  called  ' '  blue-grass  "or  *  *  Kentucky  blue- 
grass."  In  Iowa  and  the  central  parts  of  Illinois, 
Indiana,  and  Ohio,  the  name  ' '  blue-grass ' '  is  generally 
used,  while  farther  north  it  is  generally  known  as 
"June  grass." 

The  name  ' '  Kentucky  blue-grass  ' '  originated  from 
the  fact  that  the  grass  first  became  prominent  in  that 
State.  There  are  now  sections  of  Iowa,  Missouri,  and 
Illinois  in  which  blue-grass  is  nearly  or  quite  as  pro- 
ductive and  as  much  prized  as  it  is  in  the  Blue-Grass 


THE    BLUE-GRASSES  93 

Region  of  Kentucky.  According  to  Bulletin  19  of  the 
Bureau  of  Plant  Industry,  United  States  Department 
of  Agriculture,  the  principal  centre  for  the  commercial 
production  of  blue-grass  seed  is  Bourbon,  Fayette,  and 
Clark  counties,  Kentucky,  in  the  heart  of  the  Blue- 
Grass  Region.  Considerable  seed  is  harvested  in  the 
adjoining  counties  of  Scott,  Montgomery,  Woodford, 
Franklin,  and  Jessamine.  *  *  Most  of  the  seed  is  secured 
within  a  radius  of  twenty-five  miles  from  the  centre  of 
a  triangle  formed  by  lines  connecting  the  cities  of 
Lexington,  Paris,  and  Winchester."  In  recent  years 
considerable  blue-grass  seed  has  been  harvested  in 
southern  Iowa  and  northern  Missouri.  Small  quan- 
tities are  also  harvested  in  other  States. 

Distribution.  —  Fig.  19  shows  approximately  the  dis- 
tribution of  blue- grass  in  this  country.  By  referring 
to  Fig.  17,  it  will  be  seen  that  blue-grass  agrees  very 
closely  with  timothy  in  its  distribution.  These  two 
grasses  and  red  clover,  which  has  nearly  the  same 
distribution,  undoubtedly  account  for  the  high  de- 
velopment of  livestock  farming  in  the  northeastern 
quarter  of  the  United  States. 

Each  dot  on  the  map  shown  in  Fig.  19  represents  a 
correspondent  who,  in  answer  to  a  circular  letter,  re- 
ported blue-grass  as  an  important  grass  in  his  locality. 
The  census  returns  give  no  clue  to  the  area  devoted  to 
blue-grass.  What  little  hay  is  cut  from  it  is  included 
in  the  ' '  other  tame  grasses ' '  of  the  census  reports. 
The  yield  of  blue-grass  hay  seldom  exceeds  half  a  ton 
per  acre,  except  in  very  restricted  localities  on  the 
north  Pacific  Coast,  and  it  is  therefore  seldom  cut  for 
hay. 


THE    BLUE-GRASSES  95 

The  distribution  of  blue-grass  south  of  the  glacial 
dritt  is  exceedingly  interesting.  In  this  region  it  is 
confined  to  the  magnesian  limestone  soils  of  the  geo- 
logical area  known  as  the  Cambrian.  A  great  tongue 
of  this  limestone  soil  extends  southward  from  Cincin- 
nati, Ohio,  into  northern  Kentucky,  a  distance  of 
about  one  hundred  and  ten  miles,  and  is  nearly  one 
hundred  miles  broad.  This  constitutes  the  famous 
' '  Blue- Grass  Region  ' '  of  Kentucky.  The  geographical 
centre  of  this  region  is  a  point  about  twenty-two  miles 
north  of  the  City  of  Lexington,  and  it  extends  about 
twenty-five  miles  south  of  that  city.  It  is  in  this  re- 
gion that  most  of  the  blue-grass  seed  of  the  country  is 
harvested.  From  this  a  narrow  strip  extends  into 
Tennessee,  and  there  spreads  out  and  occupies  the 
"central  basin  "  of  that  State.  Blue-grass  again  ap- 
pears in  the  mountain  valleys  of  eastern  Tennessee  and 
western  Virginia,  where  it  is  an  important  pasture- 
grass.  It  appears  more  sparingly  in  the  hill  country 
of  the  western  Carolinas,  northern  Georgia,  and  north- 
ern Alabama.  Some  blue-grass  is  also  grown  on  the 
black,  sticky  prairie  soils  of  northeastern  Mississippi. 
The  Cambrian  soils  above  referred  to  are  the  only 
southern  soils  that  at  all  resemble  those  of  the  region 
north  of  the  Ohio  River,  and  it  is  only  on  them  that  the 
type  of  farming  prevalent  in  the  North  is  found  in  the 
South.  Aside  from  the  exceptions  just  noted,  blue- 
grass  is  confined  rather  strictly  to  the  glacial  drift  of 
the  Northern  States.  Its  very  general  distribution 
over  the  drift  area  is  supposed  to  be  due  to  the  lime, 
magnesia,  and,  perhaps,  potash  in  these  soils.  Climatic 
conditions  are  also  more  favorable  to  blue-grass  in  the 


96        FARM    GRASSES    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES 

North,  and  it  is  not  so  particular  as  to  soils  in  that  re- 
gion as  it  is  in  the  South,  where  the  long,  hot  summer 
season  is  fatal  to  it,  except  under  the  most  favorable 
conditions.  In  the  extreme  southern  portion  of  its 
range  it  is  decidedly  shade  loving,  and  even  as  far 
north  as  Minnesota  it  luxuriates  in  the  shade  of  open 
woodlands.  The  writer  has  seen  large  areas  of  blue- 
grass  cut  for  hay  in  woodlands  in  the  vicinity  of  Min- 
neapolis. It  makes  excellent  hay,  but  the  yield  is  low. 

BLUE-GRASS  PASTURES 

While  blue-grass  is  more  generally  distributed  over 
the  northeastern  portion  of  the  United  States  than  any 
other  grass  except  timothy,  it  is  only  in  comparatively 
limited  areas  that  it  is  sufficiently  productive  to  induce 
farmers  to  devote  their  best  lands  to  it.  Fine  blue-grass 
pastures  are  common  in  the  Blue-Grass  Region  of  Ken- 
tucky, in  central  and  northern  Missouri,  eastern  Kan- 
sas, on  alluvial  soils  in  eastern  Nebraska,  in  all  of  Iowa 
(except  the  north  western  portion),  in  Illinois,  Indiana, 
and  Ohio.  Elsewhere  they  are  less  frequently  seen,  and 
much  of  the  land  occupied  by  blue-grass  is  so  overgrown 
with  weeds  and  brush,  and  so  badly  managed  generally, 
as  to  be  of  little  value.  No  grass  equals  it  for  pasture 
purposes  in  open  woodlands  and  on  rough,  untillable 
land  throughout  its  range,  but  on  good  arable  land, 
where  the  ordinary  crops  can  be  grown,  its  usefulness 
is  limited  to  comparatively  small  areas.  Yet  it  is  in  just 
these  areas  that  the  best  horses  and  cattle  are  found  in 
this  country. 

In  the  northern  portions  of  its  range  blue-grass  f  ur- 
nishes  most  feed  in  spring  and  fall,  remaining  dormant 


THE    BLUE-GRASSES  97 

during  the  hottest  portion  of  summer  and  being  cov- 
ered too  deeply  with  snow  in  winter  for  stock  to  reach 
it.  Farther  south  the  dormant  period  of  summer 
is  more  pronounced,  but  the  slighter  depth  of  snow 
makes  it  available  as  a  winter  feed,  for  which  it  is 
justly  prized  in  the  latitude  of  southern  Iowa  and  south 
to  the  limits  of  its  range.  When  winter  pasture  is  de- 
sired it  is  wise  to  keep  stock  off  blue-grass  pastures  in 
the  fall. 

One  of  the  most  valuable  characteristics  of  blue- 
grass  is  its  exceeding  palatability  to  all  kinds  of  stock. 
This  is  fully  as  important  as  its  well-known  nutritive 
quality.  Stock  eat  it  so  readily  as  to  render  blue-grass 
pastures  the  most  valuable  adjunct  to  grain  in  the  fat- 
tening process.  It  is  becoming  more  and  more  the 
practice  in  the  region  where  good  blue-grass  pastures 
are  common  to  fatten  cattle  while  at  pasture.  Gains 
are  made  more  cheaply  on  such  pastures  than  in  any 
other  manner.  Without  them  beef  production  requires 
the  most  favorable  conditions  for  success. 

In  most  parts  of  the  Blue- Grass  Region  it  is  custom- 
ary to  provide  other  green  feed  for  stock  in  midsum- 
mer, for  pastures  are  liable  to  be  short  at  that  season, 
especially  if  rainfall  is  scanty.  Those  who  manage  their 
pastures  most  judiciously  prefer  to  let  them  rest  during 
midsummer,  even  in  seasons  where  there  is  good  feed 
on  them,  so  as  to  make  them  more  productive  late  in 
the  season. 

It  is  well  known  that  blue-grass  is  slow  in  starting 
on  freshly  seeded  land.  Many  farmers  never  plow  up 
a  good  blue-grass  sod  because  of  the  difficulty  of  start- 
ing a  new  one  and  the  great  length  of  time  required. 


98         FARM    GRASSES    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES 

One  of  the  best  authorities  on  the  subject  in  the  Cen- 
tral West  says  it  takes  three  years  under  the  best  con- 
ditions to  get  a  good  stand  of  blue-grass,  and  that  it 
takes  ten,  fifteen,  or  twenty  years  to  get  a  first-class 
blue-grass  pasture.  "The  very  best  blue-grass  pas- 
tures we  have  ever  seen  are  on  lands  that  have  never 
been  profaned  by  the  plow."  The  same  authority 
recommends  that  every  two  or  three  years  a  blue- grass 
pasture  should  be  disked  throughly  and  sown  to  a  mix- 
ture of  mammoth,  red,  and  alsike  clover.  Pastures 
thus  treated  furnish  feed  during  midsummer  when  blue- 
grass  is  ordinarily  dormant. 

The  difficulty  of  starting  blue-grass  is  increased  by 
the  fact  that  much  of  the  seed  on  the  market  is  of  low 
germinating  quality.  It  has  been  shown  by  the  inves- 
tigations of  the  United  States  Department  of  Agricul- 
ture that  the  cause  of  this  is  faulty  methods  of  han- 
dling the  seed  during  the  harvest.  Where  large  areas 
are  to  be  harvested  much  of  the  seed  is  gathered  too 
green.  In  curing  it  is  customary  to  pile  the  freshly 
stripped  seed  in  long,  narrow  ricks  a  foot  and  a  half 
to  three  or  four  feet  high.  When  heaped  together 
thus  the  mass  heats  rapidly,  and  frequently  the  ger- 
minating power  is  thus  completely  destroyed.  Tem- 
peratures of  148°  F.  have  been  observed  in  such  ricks 
twenty  hours  after  the  seed  was  thus  heaped,  and 
only  3  per  cent,  of  the  seed  retained  its  germinat- 
ing power  at  that  time.  So  general  was  this  faulty 
method  of  curing  blue-grass  seed  a  few  years  ago,  that 
seed  laboratories  considered  a  germination  of  25  per 
cent,  excellent.  Even  now  45  to  50  per  cent,  is  the 
figure  usually  given  as  the  standard  for  germinating 


THE    BIAJK-GRASSES  99 

power  of  prime  blue-grass  seed.  Yet  in  tests  of  prop- 
erly cured  seed  90  per  cent,  or  more  have  germinated. 

Poor  seed  undoubtedly  accounts  for  many  failures 
in  attempting  to  start  blue-grass  pastures.  Unless  the 
germinating  power  of  such  seed  is  known,  it  is  pure 
guess-work  to  determine  the  amount  required  to  secure 
a  stand.  Ordinarily  25  or  30  Ibs.  of  good,  germinable 
seed  is  sufficient  to  seed  an  acre,  but  it  is  usually  wise 
to  use  at  least  twice  this  much  of  the  common  run  of 
seed  on  the  markets.  Seedsmen  should  be  required 
by  law  to  guarantee  the  germinating  power  of  blue- 
grass  seed,  as  well  as  other  seeds.  To  do  this  it 
would  be  necessary  to  charge  a  higher  price  for  the 
seed,  but  in  the  end  it  would  be  cheaper  to  the  farmer. 
Under  present  conditions  no  seedsman,  however  desir- 
ous of  furnishing  only  high-grade  seeds,  can  afford  to 
guarantee  his  wares,  for  he  would  be  compelled  to 
charge  such  prices  that  farmers  generally  would  buy 
from  his  competitors  inferior  seeds  at  a  price  which 
appears  to  be  cheaper,  but  which  in  reality  is  not  so. 

There  is  no  universally  recognized  way  of  starting 
a  blue-grass  sod.  This  is  partly  owing  to  the  numer- 
ous failures  of  all  methods  from  bad  seed.  Some 
farmers  in  the  Central  West  scatter  the  seed  in  corn- 
fields in  late  summer  or  early  fall.  Others  sow  it  with 
clover  on  wheat  and  timothy  in  early  spring.  Some 
prefer  to  sow  on  a  light  snow,  while  others  sow  at  a 
time  when  the  ground  is  lightly  frozen  and  cracked, 
honeycomb  fashion.  On  account  of  the  length  of  time 
required  to  start  a  blue-grass  pasture,  it  is  quite  com- 
mon for  the  seed  to  be  sown  when  a  timothy  and  clover 
meadow  is  laid  down.  By  the  time  the  meadow  has 


100      FARM    GRASSES    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES 

been  cut  for  hay  two  or  three  seasons  there  is  usually 
a  fair  sod  of  blue- grass.  These  meadows  are  then 
converted  into  pastures,  the  timothy  and  clover  gradu- 
ally disappearing  as  the  blue-grass  sod  becomes  well  es- 
tablished. After  a  few  years'  use  as  pasture  such  fields 
are  usually  plowed  up  for  corn.  The  amount  of  plant 
food  that  accumulates  in  a  well-managed  pasture  of 
this  kind  enables  the  farmer  to  secure  one  or  more 
heavy  crops  of  corn.  After  running  such  a  field 
through  the  usual  rotation  of  the  locality,  it  is  again 
set  to  grass  in  the  manner  above  outlined.  The  prac- 
tice just  described  is  common  in  Kentucky,  western 
Maryland,  western  Virginia,  and  in  parts  of  all  the 
other  blue-grass  States. 

The  value  of  blue-grass  for  pasture  purposes  in  wood- 
lands has  already  been  mentioned.  Much  land  that 
is  now  occupied  by  useless  brush  could  be  converted 
into  valuable  blue-grass  pastures  if  rightly  managed. 
To  do  this  it  is  necessary  to  clear  off  the  underbrush. 
If  practicable  the  dead  leaves  should  be  burned. 
Blue-grass  seed  may  then  be  scattered  in  late  win- 
ter, and  in  a  few  years,  if  the  underbrush  and  weeds 
are  kept  down,  a  fair  stand  of  grass  can  be  secured. 
Blue-grass  pastures,  to  be  made  profitable,  must  be 
kept  free  from  brush  and  weeds,  and  not  stocked  too 
heavily.  The  best  methods  of  managing  a  pasture  so 
as  to  secure  the  largest  amount  of  feed  are  more  fully 
discussed  in  the  chapters  on  meadows  and  pastures. 

In  the  New  England  States,  wljere  more  or  less 
permanent  grass-lands  occupy  the  greater  portion  of 
the  tillable  area,  blue-grass  is  nearly  always  an  impor 
tant  constituent  of  the  herbage  in  meadows  and  pas- 


THE    BUTE-GRASSES     '  IOI 

tures.  In  the  Northern  Rocky  Mountain  States  and 
in  the  Pacific  Northwest  many  varieties  of  this 
species  are  found  in  the  wild  state,  and  they  not  in- 
frequently appear  among  the  grasses  on  the  farms. 
It  is  not  very  highly  prized  in  those  regions  because 
of  its  low  3rield  of  forage.  Alfalfa,  timothy,  redtop, 
and  orchard-grass  all  do  well  there,  and  yield  much 
more  feed.  In  a  few  limited  areas  in  the  State  of 
Washington,  especially  in  the  western  part,  blue- 
grass  is  a  troublesome  weed.  The  variety  found  there 
grows  very  rank,  and  sends  out  formidable  under- 
ground stems  that  make  it  difficult  to  eradicate. 

Blue-grass  is  the  universal  lawn  grass  in  the  north- 
ern half  of  the  United  States,  and  it  has  no  equal  for 
this  purpose  where  the  soil  is  suitable  and  there  is 
abundant  water  to  keep  it  green  during  the  summer. 
White  clover  is  usually  sown  with  it  in  lawns;  indeed, 
it  does  better  when  mixed  with  white  clover.  These 
two  plants  are  especially  adapted  to  each  other.  The 
clover  enriches  the  soil  in  nitrogen,  greatly  to  the  ad- 
vantage of  the  grass. 

CANADA   BLUE-GRASS  (Poa  compressa) 

This  grass  is  of  interest  chiefly  from  the  fact  that 
its  seed  is  sometimes  used  to  adulterate  the  seed  of 
Kentucky  blue-grass.  It  has  some  value  for  pasture 
purposes  on  sandy  soils  in  the  far  North.  It  also  does 
well  on  poor  clay  soils  where  Kentucky  blue-grass 
fails.  It  is  also  a  fairly  good  lawn  grass  for  dry  re- 
gions, but  must  be  kept  closely  mown.  If  allowed  to 
grow  up,  its  wiry  stems,  when  cut  back,  leave  a  coarse, 
hard  stubble,  very  undesirable  in  a  lawn.  In  color  it 


102      FARM    GRASSES    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES 

is  more  nearly  blue  than  any  other  grass.  It  does  not 
grow  so  tall  as  Kentucky  blue-grass,  and  may  be  dis- 
tinguished from  it  by  its  flat  stems  and  bluer  color. 
In  eastern  Ontario  and  in  western  New  York  it  is 
sometimes  cut  for  hay.  The  hay  is  highly  prized, 
being  preferred  by  horsemen  to  timothy,  but  the  small 
yield  renders  this  grass  of  little  importance  for  hay 
production. 

TEXAS   BI.UE-GRASS   (Poa  arachnifera) 

This  is  a  grass  that  is  more  or  less  favorably  known 
over  most  of  the  cotton-growing  States.  It  produces  a 
very  beautiful  sward  which  retains  its  deep  green  color 
at  all  seasons  of  the  year.  It  is  worthy  of  general  atten- 
tion in  the  South  as  a  lawn  grass.  As  is  the  case  with 
Bermuda  grass,  it  is  difficult  to  start  from  seed,  and  it 
is  usually  started  by  planting  small  pieces  of  sod.  The 
stems  being  upright,  a  sod  can  be  separated  into  very 
small  pieces,  which  should  be  set  not  over  a  foot  apart 
each  way,  as  it  does  not  form  a  sod  as  quickly  as  Ber- 
muda grass.  This  grass  remains  green  winter  and 
summer  in  the  grass-garden  of  the  Department  of  Ag- 
riculture at  Washington.  The  difficulty  of  securing 
sod  for  starting  Texas  blue-grass  is  probably  the  chief 
reason  why  it  is  not  more  generally  grown  for  lawn 
purposes  in  the  South.  It  is  gradually  gaining  ground, 
and  may  in  time  become  important.  It  is  rather  too 
difficult  to  start  to  justify  its  general  use  as  a  pasture- 
grass. 


VIII 

THE    MILLETS 

HHK  term  '  *  millet ' '  is  applied  in  this  country  to 
four  distinct  groups  of  grasses.  The  most  im- 
portant of  these  is  that  to  which  common  millet, 
Hungarian  grass,  and  German  millet  belong. 
We  may  call  these  the  foxtail  millets,  from  the  shape 
of  the  heads.  These  grasses  are  varieties  of  the  botan- 
ical species  Ch<ztochloa  italica.  The  next  group  con- 
sists of  the  varieties  of  the  species  Panicum  miliaceum, 
known  in  this  country  as  the  broom-corn  millets,  from 
the  fadl  that  the  head  bears  some  resemblance  to  that 
of  broom-corn.  They  have  acquired  considerable  im- 
portance in  the  Northwestern  Prairie  States  in  recent 
years.  The  third  group  is  usually  known  as  Japan- 
ese millets.  They  belong  to  the  species  Panicum  crus- 
galli,  of  which  our  common  barn-yard  grass  is  the  best- 
known  representative  in  this  country.  These  millets 
are  cultivated  extensively  in  parts  of  Japan  and  China. 
Colorado  grass  (Panicum  texanum)  is  sometimes  called 
Texas  millet.  It  constitutes  the  fourth  group.  It  is 
not,  strictly  speaking,  a  cultivated  grass,  but  consid- 
erable hay  is  made  from  volunteer  growth  of  it  in  corn- 
fields in  parts  of  Texas.  The  general  discussion  which 
follows  applies  only  to  the  first  two  of  the  above 
groups,  and  more  particularly  to  the  foxtail  millets. 

Millet  was  one  of  the  crops  grown  by  our  prehis- 
toric ancestors.      The  seed   is   found   in   the  debris 

103 


104      FARM    GRASSES    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES 

around  the  former  habitations  of  the  lake-dwellers  of 
Europe.  The  date  at  which  these  people  flourished  is 
not  known,  but  it  was  long  before  the  dawn  of  history. 
Millet-seed  seems  to  have  constituted  an  important  ar- 
ticle of  diet  with  them,  as  it  does  to-day  in  many  parts 
of  Europe  and  Asia.  In  America  the  first  of  the  above 
classes  of  millet  is  grown  exclusively  for  hay  ;  the 
broom -corn  millets  are  grown  both  for  hay  and  for 
grain,  but  the  grain  is  used  here  only  for  stock  feed. 

The  distribution  of  millet  hay  production  in  the 
United  States,  according  to  the  Census  of  1900,  is 
shown  in  Fig.  20.  This  map  shows  clearly  that  the 
millet  region  lies  along  the  western  border  of  the 
humid  region,  from  Texas  to  the  Canadian  line.  In 
Iowa,  northern  Missouri,  northern  Illinois,  and  south- 
ern Wisconsin  the  millet  belt  extends  eastward  into 
the  humid  region.  Middle  and  eastern  Tennessee  con- 
stitute an  island,  so  to  speak.  Millet  is  grown  spar- 
ingly in  nearly  all  parts  of  the  country,  but  the  acre- 
age is  too  small  in  most  sections  to  appear  on  the  map, 
which  was  constructed  by  placing  one  dot  in  each 
county  having  500  to  1,500  acres,  two  dots  in  counties 
having  1,500  to  2,500  acres,  and  so  on. 

There  is  apparently  no  reason  why  millet  should 
be  more  largely  grown  in  Wisconsin,  Illinois,  Ken- 
tucky, and  Tennessee  than  in  other  parts  of  the  tim- 
othy region.  The  large  acreage  in  the  belt  of  States 
from  Texas  to  the  Dakotas  is  readily  understood. 
Millet  is  a  short-season  crop  (particularly  the  variety 
known  as  common  millet)  which  may  be  sown  late  in 
June  and  still  produce  a  good  crop  of  hay,  even  in  the 
Dakotas.  This  region  is  more  subject  to  crop  failures 


106      FARM    GRASSES    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES 

from  drouth  than  the  States  farther  east,  so  that  millet 
has  come  to  be  relied  on  there  very  largely.  If  a  crop 
of  winter  wheat  is  winter-killed,  or  even  a  spring- 
planted  crop,  such  as  corn,  fails  because  of  unfavorable 
weather  after  planting,  the  land  may  be  sown  to  millet 
after  it  is  too  late  to  plant  other  crops.  Having 
learned  the  peculiarities  of  the  crop,  farmers  grow  it  in 
that  section  very  generally,  even  in  years  when  it  is 
not  needed  as  a  catch  crop.  From  Illinois  eastward  it 
is  more  distinctly  a  catch  crop,  and  is  not  very  gener- 
ally sown  except  in  case  of  a  shortage  of  other  hay 
crops. 

Millet  probably  has  a  larger  field  of  usefulness  in 
the  Eastern  States  than  has  heretofore  been  accorded 
it.  In  most  of  these  States  it  is  customary  to  grow 
only  one  crop  a  year  on  a  given  field.  But  it  is  pos- 
sible to  grow  a  winter  crop  of  rye  hay  and  a  summer 
crop  of  millet  in  most  parts  of  the  East,  and  both  of 
these  crops  make  good  hay  if  properly  handled.  On 
farms  where  all  the  crops  are  fed,  particularly  on  those 
which  grow  only  the  roughage  and  buy  their  grain, 
and  therefore  have  an  abundance  of  manure,  and  on 
which,  in  consequence,  the  soil  does  not  particularly 
need  the  influence  of  leguminous  crops,  the  above 
double-cropping  system  on  a  portion  of  the  land  is  en- 
tirely rational.  A  few  of  the  best  farmers  in  the  East 
practice  this  method  on  some  fields.  How  far  cow- 
peas  will  replace  millet  in  this  r61e  cannot  be  stated. 
They  are  coming  into  prominence  for  this  purpose  in 
the  North  and  East.  In  good  seasons  the  cow-pea 
yields  fine  crops  of  hay,  but  millet  has  the  advantage 
of  being  somewhat  drouth-resistant.  On  farms  not 


THE    MIIJ,ETS  107 

well  supplied  with  stable  manure  cow-peas  should  un- 
doubtedly be  grown  in  preference  to  millet — at  least,  in 
the  East,  where  drouth  is  not  likely  to  interfere  with 
their  growth.  It  is  possible  that  the  cow-pea  may,  in 
time,  displace  millet  as  a  catch  crop  in  the  Eastern 
States,  but  we  do  not  yet  know  enough  about  this  crop 
in  the  North  to  state  what  its  possibilities  are  in  that 
section. 

Millet  has  the  reputation  of  being  hard  on  the  soil. 
Like  sorghum,  it  is  a  heavy  yielder,  and  makes  large 
drafts  on  soil  moisture  and  available  plant  food.  It  is 
also  a  coarse  feeder,  and  for  this  reason  it  is  particu- 
larly adapted  to  new  land.  In  the  West  it  is  a  favor- 
ite crop  on  newly  broken  prairie  sod.  It  is  also  par- 
ticularly adapted  to  newly  cleared  land  in  timbered 
sections.  It-likes  a  loose,  porous  soil,  such  as  is  found 
in  new  fields;  on  old  land  it  prefers  sandy  soil  to  clay, 
because  of  its  greater  porosity.  Yet  it  is  not  partial 
to  poor  land.  A  rich,  porous  soil,  when  put  into  fine 
tilth,  is  the  ideal  seed-bed  for  this  crop.  To  get  the 
best  results  the  land  should  be  thoroughly  fined  and 
not  too  much  compacted  before  sowing  millet-seed. 
Many  farmers  rebreak  the  land  just  before  sowing  this 
crop.  Unlike  wheat  or  alfalfa,  it  does  not  like  a  solid 
seed-bed.  On  a  soil  inclined  to  be  heavy,  after  a  mil- 
let crop  is  harvested  care  should  be  used  not  to  plow 
the  land  when  too  dry,  or  it  will  break  up  cloddy.  Mil- 
let is  one  of  the  best  crops  for  taking  the  ' '  new  ' '  out 
of  the  soil.  If  old  soil  is  not  well  handled  millet  will 
take  the  life  out  of  it.  If  the  soil  is  abundantly  sup- 
plied with  barn-yard  manure  millet  will  not  hurt  it, 
and  few  crops  will  give  a  larger  yield  of  good  hay  in 


108      FARM    GRASSES    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES 

less  time.  Millet  is  considered  a  good  crop  to  precede 
wheat,  because  it  leaves  a  solid  seed-bed.  It  is  also  one 
of  the  best  crops  for  smothering  weeds.  Even  Canada 
thistle  can  make  little  headway  in  a  thrifty  crop  of  mil- 
let. It  is  claimed  by  some  that  it  will  completely 
smother  Canada  thistle  and  quack-grass,  but  in  order 
to  do  this  the  season  must  be  very  favorable  to  the 
millet  crop  and  the  soil  must  be  put  in  fine  condition. 

On  account  of  the  rank  growth  of  millet  the  hay  is 
somewhat  more  difficult  to  cure  than  timothy.  Fortu- 
nately it  is  not  much  injured  by  dew  or  rain,  if  allowed 
to  dry  properly  before  storing.  No  definite  rules  for 
curing  the  hay  can  be  given,  because  the  temperature 
and  moisture  content  of  the  atmosphere  have  such  a 
marked  effecl:  on  the  rate  at  which  hay  dries  out  in  cur- 
ing. It  should  lie  in  the  swath  longer  than  timothy, 
and  when  put  up  in  cocks  it  should  remain  consider- 
ably longer  than  lighter  kinds  of  hay.  The  writer 
has  seen  millet  hay  heat  almost  to  the  point  of  combus- 
tion from  being  put  in  the  mow  too  early,  though  when 
stored  it  appeared  as  dry  as  hay  is  ordinarily  when 
ready  to  put  in  bulk.  Experience  alone  can  determine 
the  proper  degree  of  dryness  to  insure  safety  from  heat- 
ing. On  account  of  its  solid  stems  it  is  heavier  than 
other  kinds  of  hay,  volume  for  volume,  and  packs  more 
solidly,  thus  causing  it  to  shed  rain  better.  It  can, 
therefore,  be  left  in  the  field  to  cure  without  great 
danger. 

Millet  is  cut  for  hay  at  various  stages.  Some  cut  it 
just  as  the  heads  begin  to  appear  ;  others,  when  it  is 
in  bloom  ;  while  still  others  cut  when  the  seed  is  ripe. 
The  season  at  which  millet  should  be  cut  depends  on 


THE  MILLETS  109 

circumstances.  Like  most  other  crops,  the  length  of 
time  required  to  mature  a  crop  of  millet  depends  on 
the  season.  Since  it  is  grown  largely  as  a  catch  crop, 
it  is  sometimes  necessary  to  cut  it  early  to  get  the  hay 
out  of  the  way  for  another  crop.  It  undoubtedly  makes 
good  hay  when  cut  even  before  it  begins  to  head,  if 
properly  cured,  but  the  yield  is  larger  and  the  quality 
just  as  good  if  cut  in  bloom.  The  quality  of  the  hay 
deteriorates  after  the  seed  begins  to  form,  and  it  is  un- 
wise to  allow  it  to  reach  this  stage  unless  a  crop  of  seed 
is  desired.  In  that  case  the  seed  should  be  allowed  to 
get  fully  ripe.  Hay  from  ripe  millet  is  undesirable  for 
two  reasons:  it  is  not  so  palatable  nor  so  digestible  as 
when  cut  earlier,  and  the  hardened  bristles  become  a 
source  of  annoyance  and  even  danger  to  stock.  Yet 
stock  will  eat  millet  straw  from  which  the  ripe  seed 
has  been  threshed,  and  some  farmers  consider  this  straw 
very  good  feed. 

Millet  is  well  adapted  for  use  as  a  green  feed, 
and  it  is  .so  used  to  some  extent  in  the  East,  where  the 
soiling  system  is  coming  to  be  generally  practiced 
on  dairy-farms.  It  is  strong  feed,  and  should  be  used 
with  care,  particularly  when  fed  in  the  green  state  to 
horses.  It  is  also  suitable  for  use  as  temporary  pas- 
ture. If  hurdles  are  used,  and  care  is  taken  not  to 
graze  too  closely,  it  may  be  grazed  over  three  or  four 
times  in  a  season. 

The  amount  of  millet  seed  required  to  sow  an  acre 
is  about  two  pecks  when  sown  for  hay,  and  one  peck 
when  sown  for  seed.  In  some  sections  millet  is  sown  in 
rows  and  cultivated,  when  grown  for  the  seed.  When 
thus  sown  a  bushel  of  seed  is  sufficient  for  six  or  eight 


110      FARM    GRASSES    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES 

acres.  Seed  grown  in  this  manner  is  usually  plumper 
and  of  better  appearance  than  seed  from  thicker  sow- 
ing. It  is  especially  recommended  to  sow  in  rows  and 
cultivate  when  growing  millet  on  poor  and  weedy  soil. 
New  land  is  preferred  for  seed  growing  because  of  the 
absence  of  weeds.  In  the  case  of  the  broom-corn 
millets,  the  seed  of  which  is  considerably  larger  than 
that  of  the  foxtail  varieties,  about  three  pecks  of  seed 
is  used,  either  for  hay  or  for  seed  production.  While 
the  seed  of  German  millet  is  smaller  than  common 
millet  and  Hungarian  grass-seed,  that  variety  does  not 
stool  out  so  much  as  the  other  two  just  mentioned,  and 
for  this  reason  the  larger  number  of  seeds  in  a  given 
volume  gives  no  thicker  stand  of  German  millet  than 
the  smaller  number  contained  in  the  same  volume  of 
common  millet  and  Hungarian  grass. 

When  grown  for  seed,  millet  may  be  cut  with  an 
ordinary  twine-binder,  and  threshed  the  same  as  wheat, 
using,  of  course,  finer  riddles  and  less  draft.  The  yield 
of  seed  is  ordinarily  from  twenty  to  forty  bushels  per 
acre,  though  yields  of  eighty  or  more  bushels  have 
been  obtained  on  good  soil  in  favorable  seasons.  Ac- 
cording to  Professor  Crozier,  the  average  yield  in 
twenty-seven  counties  in  Iowa  in  the  year  1889  was 
^twenty-seven  bushels.  In  the  seed  trade  Hungarian 
grass-seed  is  bought  and  sold  on  a  basis  of  48  Ibs.  to 
the  bushel,  while  50  Ibs.  is  considered  a  bushel  of  com- 
mon and  German  millet.  The  legal  weight  of  all  three 
varieties  is  50  Ibs.  per  bushel  in  most  of  the  States  that 
have  legislated  on  the  subject. 

Millet  seed  is  excellent  feed  for  all  kinds  of  stock, 
but  the  price  is  usually  too  high  to  justify  its  use  for 


THE    MILLETS  III 

this  purpose.  On  account  of  its  small  size  and  its 
hard  covering,  it  should  be  ground,  except  for  sheep 
and  poultry.  It  is  much  used  in  mixtures  for  feeding 
birds,  but  it  is  considered  more  or  less  an  adulterant  in 
such  mixtures,  being  inferior  for  this  purpose  to  the 
seed  of  canary-grass. 

VARIETIES 

FOXTAIL  MILLETS. — There  are  many  varieties  of 
this  group  of  millets  both  in  America  and  in  Europe, 
but  only  three  are  of  special  importance  in  this  coun- 
try. These  are:  Common  millet,  Hungarian  grass, 
and  German  millet.  Of  these  the  first-named  matures 
in  the  shortest  time,  and  is  the  predominant  variety  in 
the  northern  part  of  the  millet-growing  section.  Ger- 
man millet  is  the  latest  of  these  three  varieties,  and  is 
the  standard  in  the  southern  portion  of  the  country. 
Hungarian  is  intermediate  in  length  of  season,  and 
predominates  in  the  Eastern  States.  Although  each 
variety  thus  has  a  section  of  country  in  which  it  leads 
all  others  in  importance,  they  are  all  sown  more  or 
less  in  all  sections.  On  account  of  its  short  season, 
common  millet  is  best  adapted  for  late  sowing,  espe- 
cially in  the  North.  It  is  also  the  best  variety  on  poor 
soils,  and  resists  drouth  more  than  the  others.  On 
good  soils,  when  it  can  be  sown  fairly  early,  German 
millet  is  the  largest  yielder.  A  typical  form  of  foxtail 
millet  is  seen  in  Fig.  2 1 . 

Common  millet  was  the  first  variety  to  gain  prom- 
inence in  this  cpuntry.  The  date  of  its  introduction 
is  unknown,  but  it  has  been  grown  more  or  less  for 
more  than  a  century.  It  does  not  grow  so  large  as 


FIG.     21 — TYPICAL     FORM     OF     FOXTAIL     MILLET 


THE    MILLETS  113 

the  other  two  varieties  mentioned  above,  but  the  heads 
are  larger  and  more  open  than  those  of  Hungarian 
grass.  Its  seed  is  yellow,  oval  in  outline,  and  is  some- 
what larger  than  that  of  Hungarian  grass.  It  pro- 
duces several  stems  from  the  same  seed. 

Hungarian  grass  has  the  smallest  and  most  com- 
padl  head  of  any  of  these  three  varieties.  Its  seed  is 
shaped  like  those  of  common  millet,  but  is  mixed  in 
color,  part  being  yellow,  part  dark  purple,  and  part 
intermediate  between  these  two  colors.  Like  common 
millet,  it  produces  several  stems  from  the  same  seed. 
It  is  intermediate  in  the  length  of  season  between  the 
other  two  varieties,  and  is  most  popular  in  the  Eastern 
States,  where  the  seasons  are  short  and  where  drouth 
is  not  so  common  as  it  is  in  the  West.  It  makes  large 
yields  on  good  soil  in  moist  seasons.  It  was  distributed 
by  the  Patent  Office  about  1854,  and  immediately  rose 
into  prominence,  particularly  in  the  West.  It  has 
since  gravitated  eastward,  because  of  its  better  adapta- 
bility to  the  climatic  conditions  prevailing  there.  It 
had  previously  been  grown  to  some  extent  in  this 
country  under  a  different  name. 

German  millet  is  a  late-maturing  variety  having 
large,  lax,  nodding  heads.  Ordinarily  it  produces 
only  one  stalk  to  the  seed,  but  these  stalks  grow  taller 
and  coarser  than  those  of  either  of  the  other  varieties. 
It  is  a  large  yielder,  and  is  particularly  popular  in 
the  Central  and  Southern  States,  where  its  long  season 
is  no  disadvantage.  It  may  be  sown  as  late  in  the 
South  as  common  millet  in  the  North.  It  sometimes 
matures  when  sown  as  late  as  the  first  of  July,  even  in 
the  Central  States.  It  is  more  drouth-resistant  than 


114      FARM    GRASSES    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES 

Hungarian  grass,  and  is  deservedly  popular  in  Texas, 
Oklahoma,  and  Kansas.  A  great  deal  of  the  seed  of 
German  millet  is  grown  in  Tennessee,  and  Tennessee- 
grown  seed  has  a  very  high  reputation  in  the  markets. 
The  seed  of  this  variety  is  yellow,  and  is  considerably 
smaller  than  that  of  common  millet.  In  shape  the 
Southern-grown  seed  is  round,  but  when  taken  North 
and  sown  the  seed  produced  there  assumes  the  oval 
shape  of  common  millet  seed.  For  this  reason  there 
has  been  considerable  confusion  among  Northern  seeds- 
men concerning  the  identity  of  these  two  varieties. 
Northern-grown  millet  seed  is  somewhat  earlier  than 
the  Southern  grown,  but  not  nearly  so  early  as  com- 
mon millet.  German  millet  came  into  prominence 
about  1875. 

The  variety  known  as  Golden  Wonder  has  been 
grown  quite  generally  during  the  past  few  years.  It 
originated  in  Minnesota  in  1884.  It  resembles  German 
millet  more  closely  than  it  does  either  of  the  other  two 
prominent  varieties,  but  is  not  so  drouth-resistant.  It 
is  noted  for  the  large  size  of  its  heads.  It  is  a  late 
variety,  resembling  German  millet  in  this  respect,  as 
well  as  in  its  tendency  to  produce  only  one  stem  from 
each  seed. 

BROOM-CORN  MIU.ETS. — Of  the  numerous  varie- 
ties of  this  group  of  grasses,  only  a  few  have  been  tried 
on  an  extensive  scale  in  this  country.  They  differ 
from  the  foxtail  millets  in  many  important  particulars. 
The  stems  are  much  larger,  not  so  tall,  and  the  head, 
as  seen  in  Fig.  22,  is  not  cylindrical.  The  seed  is  also 
much  larger  and  of  a  different  shape.  Most  of  the 
varieties  introduced  into  this  country  are  much  earlier 


FIG.    22 — BROOM-CORN    MILLET 


Il6      FARM    GRASSES    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES 

than  the  earliest  of  the  fox  tail  millets;  hence,  they  can 
be  sown  later.  In  fact,  the  millets  generally  should 
be  sown  later  than  most  other  crops,  as  the  seed  does 
not  germinate  readily  till  the  soil  is  thoroughly  warm. 
Because  of  their  very  short  season,  the  broom-corn 
millets  are  especially  adapted  to  the  Far  North.  They 
are  also  more  drouth -resistant  than  the  foxtail  millets. 
In  recent  years,  .at  least,  one  variety  has  gained  promi- 
nence in  the  Dakotas  and  adjacent  States  under  the 
name  ' '  Hog  Millet. ' '  Red  L,ump  is  another  promising 
variety  introduced  by  the  Department  of  Agriculture 
a  few  years  ago.  Another  good  variety  has  more  re- 
cently been  distributed  by  the  Department  under  its  Rus- 
sian name  of  ' '  Proso. ' '  These  varieties  do  not  yield 
a  large  amount  of  forage,  and  they  are  not  much  grown 
for  hay,  but  they  yield  a  great  abundance  of  seed, 
which  is  valuable  for  feed.  Their  worst  fault  is  their 
tendency  to  scatter  the  seed.  The  top  of  the  panicle 
ripens  first,  and  the  seed  from  this  portion  frequently 
falls  out  before  the  lower  part  of  the  head  is  ripe. 
When  grown  for  poultry  it  is  not  necessary  to  harvest 
the  seed  if  the  field  is  near  enough  to  the  farmstead 
for  the  poultry  to  range  on  it. 

JAPANESE  MILLETS. — These  are  varieties  of  the 
species  Panicum  crus-galli.  The  best-known  represen- 
tative of  the  species  is  the  barn-yard  grass  (Fig.  23), 
a  common  weed  on  moist,  rich  soils  in  every  section 
of  the  country.  In  Arizona  and  southern  California 
certain  Indian  tribes  are  said  to  make  use  of  the 
seed  of  this  grass  for  food.  In  parts  of  the  West  and 
South  volunteer  growths  of  barn-yard  grass  are  fre- 
quently cut  for  hay.  It  yields  a  large  amount  of  coarse 


FIG.     23 — BARN-YARD     GRASS 


Il8      FARM    GRASSES    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES 

hay,  which  is  readily  eaten  by  stock.  This  weed  is 
evidently  worthy  of  more  attention  as  a  fodder-plant 
than  it  has  heretofore  received,  particularly  for  moist 
soils  in  regions  where  timothy  does  not  thrive.  It  is 
strictly  an  annual,  and  is  therefore  not  adapted  to  per- 
manent meadows.  It  has  been  known  to  yield  four  tons 
of  very  good  hay  per  acre  on  land  where  its  seed  was 
scattered  by  floods  in  the  river-bottoms  of  northern 
Louisiana.  A  variety  of  this  grass  was  exploited  re- 
cently under  the  name  <f  Billion-dollar  grass."  The 
sphere  of  its  usefulness  seems  to  be  confined  to  wet 
meadows  in  the  Far  West  and  in  the  South. 

During  the  past  few  years  several  varieties  of  this 
group  have  been  introduced  into  this  country  from 
Japan,  and  have  been  tested  by  many  of  the  experiment 
stations,  particularly  in  the  West.  Some  of  them  pos- 
sess considerable  merit,  but  none  of  them  are  as  yet 
widely  cultivated.  In  Japan  and  parts  of  China,  espe- 
cially in  sections  where  rice  does  not  thrive,  these  mil- 
lets are  important  crops.  They  have  been  called  Jap- 
anese millets  in  this  country  because  the  principal 
varieties  were  introduced  from  Japan.' 

TEXAS  MIL,LET  {Panicum  texanum). — This  grass 
is  a  common  weed  on  rich  river-bottom  lands  in  central 
Texas.  The  name  most  commonly  used  for  it  in  that 
section  is  Colorado  grass,  since  it  occurs  abundantly  in 
the  vicinity  of  the  Colorado  River  in  Texas.  It  is  also 
sometimes  called  Austin  grass,  having  spread  down 
the  Colorado  River  from  Austin  some  years  ago.  Its 
habits  are  exacftly  like  those  of  crab-grass.  It  comes 
up  in  corn-fields  after  the  corn  is  laid  by.  It  seeds 
abundantly,  and  the  seed  falls  off  very  easily  when 


THE    MILLETS  1 19 

ripe.  It  therefore  reseeds  the  land,  and  does  not  need 
to  be  sown.  Its  seed  habits  are  such,  in  fact,  that  it 
can  hardly  be  handled  as  a  domesticated  grass,  for  it 
is  impracticable  to  harvest  the  seed.  On  account  of 
its  large  yield  of  most  excellent  hay  it  is  not  generally 
considered  a  pest.  The  continuous  cultivation  of  cot- 
ton-fields prevents  it  from  bothering  in  them.  When 
corn-lands  have  once  become  seeded  to  it  a  good  crop 
of  hay  can  be  secured  late  in  summer  every  year  after 
the  corn  is  harvested.  Not  infrequently  a  field,  when 
well  seeded  to  Colorado  grass,  is  left  untouched  till 
late  in  May.  It  is  then  plowed  and  harrowed,  and  the 
grass  allowed  to  grow,  making  a  fine  crop  of  hay.  It 
is  very  leafy,  the  large,  flat  leaves  resembling  those  of 
the  foxtail  millets.  Like  them,  it  is  hard  to  cure  for 
hay,  but  when  well  cured  it  is  said  to  make  hay  pf 
superior  quality.  This  grass  has  been  tried  very  gen- 
erally over  the  South,  but  has  gained  little  headway 
except  where  it  has  spread  as  a  weed.  By  recognizing 
its  essentially  weedy  character,  and  handling  it  accord- 
ingly, it  may  be  made  a  valuable  adjunct  to  the  hay- 
producing  plants  on  rich  alluvial  soils  in  the  extreme 
South.  On  suitable  soils  it  easily  displaces  crab- grass, 
but  on  light,  dry  soils  it  cannot  cope  with  this  less 
useful  and  weedy  grass. 

FEEDING   VALUE   OF   MILLET   HAY 

It  is  universally  agreed  that  millet  hay  is  highly 
nutritious,  and  that  it  is  eaten  by  all  classes  of  stock 
as  readily  as  any  other  hay  generally  grown  in  this 
country;  in  fact,  many  feeders  state  that  stock  prefer 
it  to  timothy.  For  the  past  half  century  it  has  been 


120      FARM    GRASSES    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES 

grown  and  fed  extensively  over  nearly  the  entire 
country.  As  far  as  chemical  composition  is  concerned 
it  has  a  slight  advantage  over  timothy,  as  shown  by 
the  following  figures,  giving  the  averages  for  all  pub- 
lished analyses  in  the  United  States  up  to  1 890  :  * 


DRY    MATTER 

Ash 

Protein 

fibre 

Nitrogen 
Free  Extract 

Fat 

Timothy  

5-1 

6.8 

33-5 

51-7 

2.9 

Hungarian  grass  .... 

6.5 

8.1 

30.0 

53-1 

2.3 

The  slight  difference  in  the  content  of  fat  is  imma- 
terial, and  is  counterbalanced  by  the  excess  of  nitrogen 
free  extract  in  the  Hungarian  grass.  The  latter  con- 
tains considerably  more  protein  and  less  fibre,  both  of 
which  are  advantageous. 

The  productiveness  of  millet,  its  palatability,  and 
the  nutritious  quality  of  the  hay  would  apparently 
justify  the  popularity  which  this  crop  has  had  at  va- 
rious times  since  its  introduction  in  America.  In  the 
year  1885,  according  to  Professor  Crozier,  the  acreage 
of  millet  exceeded  that  of  timothy  in  the  State  of 
Iowa.  It  has,  however,  a  number  of  objectionable 
features,  on  account  of  which  the  area  cultivated  has 
fluctuated  a  great  deal.  It  is  coarse  in  texture,  par- 
ticularly when  seeded  thinly,  and  there  is  more  or  less 
prejudice  against  coarse  grasses,  though  this  matter  is 
of  no  real  significance  if  the  grass  is  both  nutritious 
and  palatable.  The  hair-like  bristles  in  the  seed  head 


*  Bulletin  n,  Office  Experiment  Stations,  United  States  Department  of 
Agriculture. 


THE    MILLETS  121 

are  also  objectionable.  If  the  hay  is  cut  over-ripe 
these  bristles  are  apt  to  injure  the  mouths  of  stock. 
Cases  have  also  been  reported  in  which  the  bristles 
have  formed  hair  balls  in  cows'  stomachs,  causing  in- 
flammation and  resulting  fatally. 

We  have  already  called  attention  to  the  impossibil- 
ity, in  actual  practice,  of  cutting  hay  at  just  the  right 
season  ;  if  delay  in  harvesting  results  in  the  develop- 
ment of  decidedly  objectionable  characters  in  a  hay 
plant,  such  characters  are  certain  to  limit  the  useful- 
ness of  the  crop,  for  it  will  occasionally  be  necessary 
to  cut  over- ripe  hay.  The  variation  in  coarseness,  due 
to  difference  in  thickness  of  the  stand,  is  also  a  matter 
of  some  importance.  Timothy,  even  when  the  stand 
is  thin,  does  not  grow  much  coarser  stems  than  when 
the  stand  is  normal.  Millet,  on  the  other  hand,  grows 
very  large,  coarse  stems  when  for  any  reason  a  poor 
stand  is  secured.  Even  when  plenty  of  seed  is  used 
the  stand  may  be  poor  because  of  unfavorable  soil  con- 
ditions at  seeding-tiine.  This  lack  of  uniformity  in 
the  character  of  growth  of  millet  prejudices  many 
against  it. 

The  fact  that  millet  is  an  annual  may  be  either  an 
advantage  or  a  disadvantage,  according  to  circum- 
stances. It  is  probably  true  that  millet  would  occupy 
a  much  more  important  place  in  our  agriculture  if  it 
were  perennial.  The  American  farmer  likes  a  grass 
that  can  be  kept  in  a  meadow  for  several  years  with  no 
attention  except  to  cut  it  for  hay.  At  the  same  time, 
a  productive,  short-season  annual  is  exceedingly  use- 
ful for  sowing  when  other  crops  fail ;  it  is  for  this  lat- 
ter purpose  that  millet  is  most  largely  used.  In  some 


122      FARM    GRASSES    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES 

seasons  much  more  of  it  is  needed  for  this  purpose  than 
in  others,  and  this  accounts,  in  part,  for  the  fluctua- 
tions in  the  area  of  millet  grown  from  year  to  year. 
Common  millet  and  Hungarian  grass  at  least  may  be 
sown  at  the  North  after  it  is  too  late  to  replant  corn  or 
other  standard  forage  crops,  and  yet  make  a  good  crop 
of  hay  in  time  for  a  succeeding  crop  of  winter  grain. 
The  only  crop  which  rivals  millet  in  this  respect  is  the 
cow-pea,  a  crop  not  yet  widely  known  in  the  Northern 
States,  but  which  is  gradually  working  its  way  north- 
ward. Millet  possesses  a  distinct  advantage  over  cow- 
peas  for  occupying  this  niche,  particularly  in  the 
Northwest,  because  of  its  greater  productiveness  in 
dry  seasons. 

One  other  fact  connected  with  the  value  of  millet 
hay  remains  to  be  stated.  Although  it  has  been  fed 
freely  to  all  kinds  of  stock  on  thousands  of  farms  for  a 
quarter  of  a  century  with  nothing  but  favorable  re- 
sults, there  have  always  been  persistent  rumors  that  it 
may  be  injurious  to  horses.  In  some  localities  a  pecul- 
iar ailment  to  horses  has  been  called  "  millet  disease," 
from  the  belief  that  it  is  caused  by  feeding  millet  hay. 
Like  sorghum  poisoning,  this  ailment  is  most  com- 
monly met  with  along  the  western  border  of  the  humid 
region,  but  this  may  be  due  to  the  fact  that  millet  cul- 
ture is  much  more  general  in  that  section  than  else- 
where (see  Fig.  20).  The  symptoms  of  the  disease 
are  disturbances  of  the  kidneys,  causing  increase  in 
the  flow  of  urine  and  lameness  of  the  joints.  Prof. 
T.  D.  Hinebauch,  of  the  North  Dakota  station,  in 
Bulletin  26  of  that  station,  reports  some  interesting  re- 
sults in  experiments  inaugurated  to  test  this  point. 


THE    MILLETS  123 

He  fed  several  horses  no  other  hay  than  millet  for  sev- 
eral weeks.  Most  of  the  horses  showed  no  evil  effect, 
but  one  in  particular  exhibited  all  the  symptoms  of 
"  millet  disease."  Referring  to  the  results  of  exclu- 
sive millet  feeding,  he  says:  ' '  It  produces  an  increased 
action  of  the  kidneys,  and  causes  lameness  and  swelling 
of  the  joints.  It  causes  an  infusion  of  blood  into  the 
joints  and  destroys  the  texture  of  the  bone,  rendering 
it  soft  and  less  tenacious,  so  that  the  ligaments  and 
muscles  are  easily  torn  loose."  Professor  Ladd,  of  the 
same  station,  later  isolated  a  glucoside  from  millet  hay 
extract  that  produced  these  characteristic  symptoms  in 
small  mammals  to  which  it  was  given. 

Some  horses  are  evidently  more  subject  to  this  dis- 
order than  others  ;  most  of  them  seem  to  be  exempt. 
But  that  millet  is  occasionally  the  cause  of  such  troubles 
is  tolerably  certain.  Horses  seem  to  be  the  only  farm 
animals  that  ever  suffer  from  this  cause.  Cases 
exhibiting  the  above  symptoms  were  not  uncommon . 
among  farm  horses  in  southwest  Missouri  some  twenty- 
five  years  ago,  and  millet  was  grown  there  to  a  con- 
siderable extent  at  that  time.  They  were  not  then 
attributed  to  millet  feeding,  but  it  is  probable,  in  the 
light  of  subsequent  investigations,  that  this  was  the 
cause. 

In  Professor  Hinebauch's  experiments  the  symp- 
toms of  disease  disappeared  when  other  hay  was  sub- 
stituted. It  is  generally  believed  that  millet  can  be 
fed  to  horses  with  perfect  safety  if  fed  alternately  with 
other  hay.  In  by  far  the  larger  number  of  cases  it 
can  be  fed  without  other  hay  and  not  produce  any  un- 
favorable effects.  For  sheep  and  cattle  there  seems  to 


124      FARM    GRASSES    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES 

be  no  question  of  the  value  of  millet  hay.  In  seasons 
when  other  hay  is  scarce  it  sometimes  becomes  neces- 
sary to  feed  horses  on  millet  only.  In  such  cases  it  is 
well  to  be  on  the  lookout  for  millet  disease,  and 
change  the  feed  of  such  horses  as  show  the  symptoms 
above  described. 


IX 

TWO   PROMINENT   SOUTHERN  GRASSES 

BERMUDA   GRASS   (Cynodon  dactylon) 

HHIS  grass,  known  in  the  Southern  States  as  Ber- 
muda (universally  pronounced  "Bermooda"), 
in  India  as  "  doob,"  and  in  the  British  West 
Indies  as  ' *  scutch-grass  "   (Fig.  24),  is  dis- 
tributed throughout  tropical  and  subtropical  regions 
of  both  hemispheres.     It  is  the  great  pasture-grass  of 
subtropical  and  warm  temperate  regions  throughout 
the  world.     (The  localities  where  Bermuda  grass  is  im- 
portant are  indicated  in  Fig.  25.) 

So  far  as  known,  the  following  incident  was  the  first 
introduction  of  this  grass  into  the  United  States.  Mr. 
James  A.  Bethune,  of  Washington,  D.  C.,  states  that 
during  the  war  of  1812  Mr.  John  G.  Winter,  a  mer- 
chant of  Greensboro,  Georgia,  compelled  by  the  block- 
ade of  the  Atlantic  seaports  to  bring  his  merchandise 
in  through  St.  Mary's,  on  the  Georgia-Florida  line,  on 
one  occasion  threw  into  the  street  in  front  of  his  store 
some  grass  in  which  a  shipment  of  crockery  had  been 
packed.  The  late  Gen.  James  N.  Bethune,  then  a  lad 
of  nine  or  ten  years  of  age,  living  in  Greensboro, 
picked  up  a  sprig  of  the  curious-looking  grass  and  car- 
ried it  to  his  mother.  Good  grasses  being  much 
needed  in  that  section  at  that  time,  the  sprig  was  care- 

125 


FIG.    24 — BERMUDA    GRASS 


TWO    PROMINENT    SOUTHERN    GRASSES          12 7 

fully  planted  in  the  Bethune  garden.  From  this  it 
soon  spread  to  the  streets  of  the  village.  The  embargo 
act  is  therefore  probably  responsible  for  the  intro- 
duction of  Bermuda  grass  into  this  country  by  making 
it  necessary  to  secure  foreign  merchandise  through  the 
West  Indies.  There  is  no  evidence  to  show  that  it 
came  from  the  Bermuda  Islands. 

This  grass  has  now  spread  northward  to  Maryland 
and  westward  to  the  Pacific  Coast,  and  is  nearly  as 
common  throughout  the  South  as  blue-grass  is  in  the 
North.  It  is,  in  many  respects,  the  Southern  counter- 
part of  blue-grass,  and  is,  beyond  question,  the  best  pas- 
ture-grass in  the  South,  and  one  of  the  best  in  the 
world.  Like  blue-grass,  it  is  also  the  universal  lawn 
grass  of  the  section  over  which  it  has  spread.  It  is 
distinctly  a  Southern  grass,  and  revels  in  the  hottest 
parts  of  the  long  Southern  summer.  Even  in  the  ex- 
treme South  it  is  not  a  shade-loving  plant,  but  prefers 
the  direct  rays  of  the  sun.  It  is  not  an  uncommon 
thing  to  see  Bermuda  grass  lawns  with  spots  on  the 
shady  side  of  trees  and  shrubbery  in  which  the  ground 
is  bare  or  occupied  with  more  shade-loving  plants,  such 
as  white  clover. 

Unlike  blue-grass,  Bermuda  grass  looks  brown  and 
dead  during  the  winter  season,  and  does  not  begin  to 
'  *  green  out ' '  till  rather  late  in  spring.  In  the  lati- 
tude of  Washington  City  it  does  not  begin  to  throw 
out  green  leaves  till  May.  Its  color  is  a  light  green, 
not  nearly  so  attractive  as  the  richer  green  of  blue- 
grass.  For  these  two  reasons  it  is  not  an  ideal  lawn 
grass.  Nevertheless,  a  well-kept  Bermuda  lawn  in  the 
Southern  States  is  decidedly  beautiful  during  summer. 


TWO    PROMINENT    SOUTHERN    GRASSES 


129 


(A  plat  of  Bermuda  grass  in  the  grass-garden  at  Wash- 
ington, D.  C.,  is  shown  in  Fig.  26.) 

There  is  probably  no  other  grass  that  bears  pastur- 
ing better,  or  yields  more  herbage  in  the  form  of  pas- 
ture, than  Bermuda  grass  in  sections  where  it  is  at  its 
best.  Unlike  its  counterpart  in  the  North,  it  does  not 
become  dormant  during  the  summer,  but  continues 


FIG.    26 — PLAT    OF    BERMUDA     GRASS    IN    GRASS-GARDEN    AT 
WASHINGTON,    D.    C. 

its  vigorous  growth  during  the  hottest  weather.  It 
also  withstands  drouth  to  a  marked  degree,  but  is  not 
equal  to  the  exceedingly  dry  climate  of  western  Texas, 
New  Mexico,  Arizona,  and  southern  California  unless 
irrigated.  Yet  it  remains  green  during  protracted 
summer  drouths  of  central  Texas  and  States  to  fhe 
eastward.  The  quality  of  its  herbage  is  probably 
not  quite  equal  to  that  of  blue-grass.  Stock-raising  is 
not  yet  sufficiently  developed  in  the  Bermuda  grass 
region  to  justify  a  final  judgment  on  this  point.  The 
best  Bermuda  pastures  easily  support  two  head  of  cat- 
tle per  acre  from  April  till  late  in  October  ;  not  infre- 
quently three  head  per  acre  are  grazed  on  it  during 


130      FARM    GRASSES    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES 

early  summer.  On  the  experiment  station  farm  at 
Baton  Rouge,  Louisiana,  thirty  head  of  cattle  of  all  ages 
were  kept  on  seventeen  acres  of  Bermuda  pasture,  with 
no  other  feed,  from  March  25  to  November  i .  In  addi- 
tion to  this,  sixteen  steers  were  kept  on  the  same  land 
for  a  few  weeks  when  the  growth  was  most  vigorous. 
Professor  Killebrew,  of  Tennessee,  states  that  an  acre  of 
good  Bermuda  pasture  will  keep  ten  sheep  in  good  con- 
dition for  eight  months  in  the  year.  This,  of  course,  is 
possible  only  on  the  best  alluvial  soils  in  the  warmer 
parts  of  the  South. 

For  best  results  it  should  be  grazed  systematically 
— i.e. ,  the  pasture  subdivided,  and  the  stock  turned  into 
one  inclosure  and  allowed  to  graze  it  closely,  and  then 
removed  to  the  next  inclosure.  They  should  then  be 
returned  to  the  first  lot  before  the  grass  becomes  tough 
and  wiry.  (Bermuda  grass  is  called  wire-grass  in  many 
parts  of  the  South  because  of  the  wiry  nature  of  the 
fully  matured  stems.)  If  the  stock  is  turned  into  a 
single  large  field,  a  good  deal  of  the  grass  becomes  so 
wiry  by  midsummer  that  they  will  not  eat  it  readily. 

On  poor  uplands  Bermuda  grass  yields  as  little  as 
blue-grass  does  in  similar  situations.  In  moist  cli- 
mates it  will  grow  on  nearly  pure  sand,  while  it  also 
thrives  on  low  moist  lands,  and  is  hardly  injured  by 
prolonged  overflow.  It  is  decidedly  the  best  sand- 
binder  and  bank-holder  in  the  South.  It  is  the  best 
of  all  grasses  for  covering  washed  hillsides.  It  will 
not  thrive,  however,  on  waste  lands  unless  they  are 
kept  free  from  briers,  sedge,  and  all  tall-growing 
plants  that  would  tend  to  shade  it.  On  good  alluvial 
soils  it  grows  large  enough  to  cut  for  hay,  and  fur- 


TWO    PROMINENT    SOUTHERN    GRASSES          13! 

nishes  two  or  more  cuttings,  frequently  amounting  to 
four  tons  of  hay  a  year.  Its  hay  is  of  excellent  quality, 
fully  equal  to  timothy,  though  the  amount  of  Bermuda 
hay  on  the  markets  is  so  small  that  it  is  not  a  factor 
in  the  hay  markets  of  the  South  except  in  a  few 
localities. 

Like  most  dense,  sod -forming  grasses,  Bermuda 
grass  does  best  if  broken  up  and  harrowed  down  smooth 
every  few  years.  This  is  particularly  the  case  when 
hay  is  wanted.  The  hay,  being  light,  is  easily  and 
quickly  cured.  In  fair  weather  it  may  be  cut,  teddered 
an  hour  or  two  later,  raked  into  windrows,  and  cocked 
up  in  one  day.  The  hay  should  be  allowed  to  dry 
out  well  before  baling  or  stacking.  If  it  is  to  be  baled, 
it  is  a  good  practice  in  the  South,  where  rain  is  liable 
to  come  at  any  season,  to  let  the  cocks  stand  a  day  or 
two  in  the  field,  then  haul  them  to  a  shed,  where  the 
hay  may  remain  a  couple  of  weeks  to  cure  completely 
before  baling.  The  hay  should  always  be  cut  before 
the  stems  become  hard.  Some  advocate  cutting  three 
or  four  times  a  year,  or  every  time  it  gets  large  enough. 

It  is  not  surprising  that  a  grass  so  tenacious  of  life 
as  Bermuda  grass  should  be  regarded  in  many  places 
as  a  bad  weed.  In  sections  where  a  single  crop  system 
prevails,  as  is  the  case  over  most  of  the  cotton-growing 
region  and  in  the  sugar-cane  region  of  southeastern 
Louisiana,  it  is  a  much -dreaded  pest.  In  recent  years 
it  has  spread  to  the  irrigated  sections  of  the  Southwest, 
where  it  has  become  a  serious  nuisance.  It  covers  the 
banks  of  irrigating  ditches,  and  from  them  invades 
fields  of  alfalfa  and  other  crops.  It  is  the  one  grass  of 
the  South  that  alfalfa  cannot  endure.  Crab-grass  can 


132      FARM    GRASSES    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES 

be  dragged  out  with  a  harrow  ;  Johnson  grass  suc- 
cumbs to  the  ordinary  treatment  of  alfalfa  fields.  But 
when  Bermuda  grass  gets  a  start  it  cannot  be  eradi- 
cated without  destroying  the  alfalfa.  The  land  must 
be  entirely  freed  from  Bermuda  before  seeding  to 
alfalfa,  or  failure  is  certain.  These  are  serious  charges 
against  this  great  pasture-grass.  Yet,  except  in 
Florida,  southern  Arizona,  and  southern  California, 
Bermuda  grass  seldom  produces  seed,  and  it  is  there- 
fore comparatively  easy  to  keep  it  out  of  fields  where 
it  is  not  wanted.  Where  it  produces  seed  abundantly  it 
runs  riot  everywhere  and  cannot  be  controlled.  In 
the  three  localities  named  above  it  usually  produces 
abundant  seed,  and  is  there  the  worst  pest  known. 
Under  no  circumstances  should  it  be  introduced  upon 
a  farm  in  latitudes  where  it  produces  seed. 

While  Bermuda  grass  is  tenacious  of  life,  it  does 
not  produce  a  great  abundance  of  deep  underground 
stems,  as  Johnson  grass  does.  It  spreads  by  long, 
creeping  stems,  which  remain  at  or  near  the  surface 
of  the  ground.  It  can  be  completely  killed  at  one 
operation  by  plowing  about  one  and  one-half  to  two 
inches  deep  with  a  good,  sharp  turning-plow  during 
dry,  hot  weather  in  summer,  or  just  before  a  cold 
snap  in  winter.  In  the  one  case  the  stems  are  killed 
by  drying,  in  the  other  by  freezing. 

It  has  already  been  stated  that  Bermuda  grass  does 
not  stand  shading  well.  It  is,  therefore,  possible  to 
smother  it  out  by  rank-growing  crops.  On  this  point 
Professor  Dodson,  of  the  Louisiana  Experiment  Station, 
says:  "  By  breaking  the  sod  shallow  in  December,  and 
following  with  a  crop  that  produces  dense  shade,  such 


TWO    PROMINENT    SOUTHERN    GRASSES          133 

as  cow-peas  or  velvet  beans,  Bermuda  grass  can  be  ex- 
terminated in  a  single  season."  A  very  good  system 
to  pursue  for  this  purpose  on  a  stock-farm  is  to  sow 
oafs  in  the  fall,  harvest  them  for  hay  in  the  spring, 
and  then  seed  thickly  to  cow-peas  or  velvet  beans. 
South  of  Tennessee  and  Arkansas  there  is  plenty  of 
time  for  two  crops  of  cow-peas  in  summer.  This  system 
continued  for  two  seasons  on  land  that  is  properly 
manured  usually  eradicates  the  grass  completely,  and 
gives  two  or  three  good  crops  of  hay  a  year.  One 
season  of  such  treatment  is  frequently  sufficient. 
Sorghum  and  millet  are  also  good  summer  crops  to 
use  in  getting  rid  of  Bermuda  grass.  For  this  purpose 
sorghum  should  be  sown  thick — say,  two  bushels  of 
seed  to  the  acre.  Bermuda  grass,  being  of  low  growth, 
is  completely  shaded  out  by  these  taller,  dense-growing 
crops.  On  good  land  in  the  South,  oats  yield  two  to 
two  and  a  half  tons,  and  sorghum  six  to  ten  tons,  of 
excellent  hay  per  acre.  Killing  Bermuda  grass  ought, 
therefore,  to  be  a  profitable  pastime  on  Southern  farms 
where  hay  is  needed. 

From  what  has  been  said  it  is  clear  that  Bermuda 
grass  is  not  seriously  to  be  dreaded  on  a  farm  devoted 
to  a  rational  system  of  crop  rotation.  Some  of  the  best 
farmers  the  writer  has  ever  known  in  the  South  make 
constant  use  of  Bermuda  grass  for  pasture  on  the 
rougher  portions  of  the  farm,  and  are  never  bothered 
with  it  in  the  slightest  degree  on  the  cultivated  fields. 
Since  it  produces  no  seed,  except  in  the  extreme  South, 
there  is  no  danger  that  stock  will  scatter  it  in  their 
droppings.  Where  it  does  not  produce  seed  there  is 
little  difficulty  in  controlling  it,  and  there  is  no  ques- 


134      FARM    GRASSES    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES 

tion  that  it  is  the  best  and  most  available  pasture-grass 
in  the  cotton  region. 

There  is  a  distinct  variety  of  this  grass  in  Florida, 
known  as  St.  Lucie  grass,  that  possesses  many  advan- 
tages over  Bermuda  grass.  It  grows  larger,  does  not 
produce  seed  even  in  Florida,  and  remains  green 
throughout  the  year.  Its  trailing  stems  form,  a 
dense  mat  that  can  be  lifted  up  like  a  carpet,  and 
are  striclly  above  the  ground.  It  is  much  preferred  to 
Bermuda  grass  in  Florida  because  it  yields  more  herb- 
age and  is  easily  controlled.  St.  L,ucie  grass  has  not 
been  given  the  attention  in  most  parts  of  the  South 
which  it  seems  to  merit.  It  is  not  known  how  far 
north  it  will  thrive.  It  lived  through  the  severe  win- 
ter of  1903-04  in  the  grass-garden  of  the  Department 
of  Agriculture  in  Washington,  D.C.,  and  probably  has 
nearly  as  wide  a  sphere  of  usefulness  as  Bermuda  grass 
itself.  It  would  probably  be  less  difficult  to  eradicate 
than  Bermuda  grass,  and  would  be  likely  to  furnish  as 
much  or  more  feed.  W.  H.  Haskel,  of  Florida,  in  a 
letter  to  the  Department  of  Agriculture,  speaking  of 
the  relative  merits  of  these  two  grasses,  says: 

' '  St.  I^ucie  grass  is  so  superior  to  Bermuda  grass 
that  it  seems  to  me  to  deserve  special  mention.  Ber- 
muda grass,  in  the  agricultural  sedlion  of  Florida,  is 
considered  an  unmitigated  nuisance,  because  of  the 
impossibility  of  exterminating  it.  Another  disad- 
vantage in  it  as  a  lawn  grass,  even  here  in  a  sub- 
tropical region,  is  that  it  becomes  dormant  and  brown 
during  winter,  just  when  we  want  a  lawn  grass  to 
look  best.  It  is  not  nearly  so  rapid  a  grower  for  pas- 
tures as  St.  Lucie  grass.  Now  the  opposite  of  all 


TWO    PROMINENT    SOUTHERN    GRASSES          135 

these  adverse  qualities  is  possessed  by  the  St.  Lucie. 
If  a  change  in  the  field  is  desired,  St.  L,ucie  grass  is  as . 
easily  killed  out  as  crab-grass.  It  grows  the  year 
around,  except  when  temporarily  set  back  by  a  freeze. 
Then,  if  burned  off  or  cut  off,  in  two  weeks  it  comes 
out  green  as  ever."  It  would  probably  not  remain 
green  in  winter  as  far  north  as  central  Alabama,  but 
its  other  advantages  make  it  worth  trying  both  for 
lawn  and  as  a  pasture  grass  over  the  whole  South. 

The  price  of  Bermuda  grass  seed  runs  ordinarily 
from  75  cents  to  $1.00  per  pound,  sometimes  more. 
The  supply  comes  almost  entirely  from  Australia.  It 
is  one  of  the  most  unreliable  seeds  on  the  market,  a 
fact  probably  due  to  improper  methods  of  handling  in 
curing  and  shipping.  Even  the  best  of  Bermuda  seed 
is  very  uncertain.  Some  time  ago  the  writer  went  over 
all  the  reports  received  by  the  Department  of  Agricul- 
ture from  farmers  to  whom  this  seed  had  been  sent  for 
several  years  past.  Out  of  a  dozen  men  reporting  on 
seed  from  the  same  lot  three  or  four  would  report  a 
perfect  stand,  the  others  total  failures.  For  this  seed 
to  germinate,  the  conditions  must  be  exactly  ideal : 
the  soil  prepared  with  the  greatest  care,  amply  supplied 
with  moisture,  be  thoroughly  warm,  and  the  weather 
must  be  favorable  for  a  considerable  period  after  sow- 
ing. On  account  of  the  uncertainty  of  this  method  of 
securing  a  stand  of  Bermuda  grass  the  seed  is  seldom 
sown. 

The  more  usual,  and  by  far  the  most  reliable,  way 
is  to  plant  small  pieces  of  sod.  The  methods  of  doing 
this  are  nearly  as  numerous  as  there  are  Bermuda 
grass  growers.  Usually  a  piece  of  sod  is  plowed  as 


136      FARM    GRASSES    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES 

shallow  as  may  be  with  a  turning-plow.  It  is  then 
gathered  up,  shaken  as  free  from  earth  as  possible,  and 
then  cut  or  torn  into  small  pieces.  A  single  piece 
of  stem  with  a  joint  in  it  will  start  a  new  growth  if 
buried  shallow  in  moist  soil.  For  lawns  the  pieces 
of  sod  are  usually  set  by  hand  about  a  foot  apart  each 
way  in  a  carefully  prepared  soil.  This  is  usually  done 
in  the  spring,  though  it  can  be  done  at  almost  any 
season  except  when  there  is  danger  of  freezing  weather. 
For  pastures  much  less  careful  methods  will  suffice. 
A  very  good  plan  is  to  scatter  the  pieces  of  sod  in 
standing  corn,  and  cover  them  at  the  last  cultivation. 
When  the  soil  is  wet  a  barefooted  boy,  with  a  sack  or 
basket  of  sod,  may  drop  the  pieces  of  sod  and  press 
them  into  the  soil  with  his  foot. 

Another  good  plan  is  to  scatter  pieces  of  sod  in 
every  alternate  furrow  as  the  land  is  plowed.  The 
thicker  they  are  placed  the  sooner  a  stand  is  secured  ; 
but  if  dropped  every  eighteen  inches  or  two  feet,  and 
covered  from  two  to  four  inches  deep,  the  grass  will 
completely  cover  the  land  next  season.  Another  plan 
frequently  employed  is  to  plow  and  harrow  the  land, 
lay  off  furrows  as  for  planting  corn  by  hand,  but  with 
the  furrows  only  about  two  feet  apart;  drop  the  sods  a 
foot  or  two  apart  in  these  furrows,  and  cover  by  means 
of  a  hafrow  or  drag.  In  regions  where  it  is  safe  to  sow 
oats  in  spring  the  sod  may  be  freed  from  soil  and  run 
through  a  feed-cutter.  The  fragments  may  then  be 
broadcasted  along  with  the  oats  and  harrowed  in.  The 
grass  will  make  little  headway  till  the  oats  are  cut,  but 
will  form  a  good  sod  by  the  next  spring. 

Many  attempts  have  been  made  to  find  some  winter- 


TWO    PROMINENT    SOUTHERN    GRASSES          137 

growing  plant  that  may  be  grown  with  Bermuda  grass, 
so  as  to  furnish  pasture  the  year  around,  but  without 
much  show  of  success.  Hairy  vetch,  if  carefully  han- 
dled, has  some  value  for  this  purpose,  but  if  eaten  too 
close  in  spring  it  fails  to  reseed  itself  and  thus  disap- 
pears. On  the  other  hand,  if  allowed  to  grow  too  rank 
in  spring,  it  kills  out  the  grass  and  makes  the  pasture 
patchy.  Bur  clover  has  been  recommended  for  this 
purpose,  but  the  same  objections  hold  in  this  case  as 
those  just  stated  for  hairy  vetch.  It  is  also  not  readily 
eaten  by  stock.  Texas  blue-grass  has  also  been  tried 
as  a  winter  companion  for  Bermuda  grass,  but  not  on 
a  scale  sufficient  to  give  positive  results.  A  few  farm- 
ers report  favorable  results  with  it.  By  plowing  Ber- 
muda sod  in  autumn  it  is  probable  that  a  crop  of  fall- 
sown  oats  could  be  grown  for  hay  and  leave  good 
pasture  the  next  summer,  though  this  suggestion  rests 
rather  on  theory  than  on  experience. 

JOHNSON   GRASS   (Sorghum  halapense) 

In  South  Carolina  this  grass  (Fig.  27)  is  generally 
known  as  Means  grass,  while  it  is  frequently  but  er- 
roneously called  ' '  Guinea  grass ' '  in  Alabama  and  other 
sections  of  the  South.  It  is  unquestionably  the  worst 
weed  in  the  South.  At  the  same  time,  it  yields  two  to 
three  crops  of  good  hay  a  year.  Those  who  are  not 
acquainted  with  Johnson  grass  are  often  inclined  to 
think  that  a  weed  that  yields  such  crops  of  good  feed 
is  a  good  one  to  have  on  a  farm,  and  this  would,  in 
fadl,  be  the  case  if  only  the  one  crop  were  desired. 
There  are,  however,  very  few  farmers  who  want  to 
grow  nothing  else.  Those  whose  farms  are  free  from 


FIG.    27 — JOHNSON    GRASS 


TWO    PROMINENT    SOUTHERN    GRASSES          139 

Johnson  grass  very  wisely  refuse  to  feed  the  hay,  nor 
will  they  buy  horses  or  other  stock  from  stables  where 
it  is  fed.  For  these  reasons  there  is  not  an  extensive 
market  for  the  hay. 

As  to  the  feeding  value  of  Johnson  grass  hay,  it 
may  be  stated  that  all  kinds  of  stock  eat  it  greedily. 
Horses  prefer  it  to  timothy,  and  it  is  fully  as  nutritious 
as  the  latter.  For  cattle,  idle  horses,  and  horses  at 
ordinary  work,  the  only  possible  objection  to  the  hay 
is  the  danger  of  spreading  the  seed  of  it  in  the  drop- 
pings. It  is  not  a  satisfactory  feed  for  livery-stable 
horses,  being  too  laxative.  It  might  seem  that  the 
danger  of  spreading  Johnson  grass  could  be  averted 
by  cutting  the  hay  before  the  seed  is  ripe,  but  such  is 
not  the  case.  In  the  first  place,  it  is  not  always  pos- 
sible to  cut  hay  at  the  right  time,  because  of  unfavor- 
able weather,  pressure  of  other  work,  etc.  Again,  the 
seeds  of  grasses  are  so  inconspicuous  that  it  is  not 
always  easy  for  the  farmer  to  tell  just  when  the  grass 
must  be  cut  to  avoid  getting  seed  in  the  hay.  Another 
difficulty  arises  from  the  fact  that  the  first  crop  of  the 
season  is  usually  very  irregular  in  coming  to  maturity, 
and  ripe  seed  is  found  on  some  plants  before  others 
head  out.  Then,  on  a  Johnson  grass  infested  farm, 
there  is  always  more  or  less  of  it  scattered  along  fence- 
rows,  ditches,  and  other  waste  ground,  and  the  seed 
scatters  from  these  stray  patches.  In  the  language  of 
an  Erath  County,  Texas,  farmer,  "Johnson  grass 
would  be  a  good  thing  on  a  place  if  you  could  keep  it 
where  you  want  it." 

The  farmers  of  the  South  generally  regard  Johnson 
grass  as  an  unmitigated  evil,  though  one  finds  here 


140      FARM    GRASSES    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES 

and  there  a  farmer  who  speaks  a  good  word  for  it.  In 
some  States  there  are  laws  against  the  sale  of  the  seed. 
While  there  is  no  question  as  to  the  value  of  the  grass 
for  hay  production,  it  is  doubtful  whether  a  farmer  is 
justified  in  introducing  Johnson  grass  even  on  a  stock- 
farm  in  the  South.  What  position  it  would  hold  in 
the  agriculture  of  the  South  should  livestock  farming 
become  general  there  it  is  difficult  to  say.  If  it  should 
prove  to  be  possible,  by  selection  or  crossing,  to  secure 
a  variety  with  less  formidable  rootstocks,  so  that  it 
could  be  killed  as  easily  as  blue-grass  is  in  the  North, 
it  would  become  the  great  hay  grass  of  the  South. 

The  difficulty  in  eradicating  Johnson  grass  is  due 
to  the  fact  that  it  produces  long,  underground  stems 
which  possess  great  vitality.  It  is  well-nigh  impos- 
sible to  free  the  soil  completely  from  these  "  roots,"  as 
they  are  called.  They  are  not  roots  at  all,  but  are 
underground  stems,  having  joints,  with  a  rudimentary 
leaf  and  a  bud  at  each  joint.  A  small  piece  of  root- 
stock  having  a  bud  on  it  will  develop  a  new  plant  if 
given  half  a  chance.  By  plowing  the  land  in  the  fall 
and  harrowing  out  the  major  portion  of  the  root- 
stocks  it  is  possible  to  grow  an  excellent  crop  of  corn 
or  cotton  the  next  year  practically  free  from  Johnson 
grass;  but  by  another  year  the  pieces  of  rootstock 
left  in  the  ground  by  the  harrow  re-establish  the  grass 
sufficiently,  to  make  it  troublesome.  The  third  year  it 
is  usually  as  bad  as  ever. 

The  difficulty  in  dealing  with  this  weed  is  greatly 
increased  by  the  implements  used  for  tillage  on  many 
Southern  farms.  To  check  the  grass  effectively  a  good 
two-horse  turning-plow  is  absolutely  necessary,  an  im- 


TWO    PROMINENT    SOUTHERN    GRASSES          141 

pleinent  not  found  on  many  small  farms.  In  plowing 
it  is  necessary  to  cut  and  turn  over  every  inch  of  the 
land.  By  doing  this  it  is  entirely  possible  to  plow  a 
Johnson  grass  meadow  in  spring,  harrow  out  the  root- 
stocks,  and  make  a  good  cultivated  crop  the  same  year; 
but  it  requires  careful  work,  and  a  great  deal  of  it,  to  do 
so.  The  grass  may  be  entirely  eradicated  in  a  single 
season  if  the  farmer  can  spare  the  land  and  afford  the 
necessary  labor.  The  best  way  to  do  this  is  to  plow 
the  land  with  a  turning-plow  in  the  fall,  selecting  a 
time  when  the  soil  is  mellow.  Harrow  out  as  many 
rootstocks  as  possible  and  remove  them  from  the  field. 
Then  sow  some  winter  grain,  such  as  oats,  barley,  or 
rye.  Wheat  is  too  late  in  maturing.  The  grain  should 
be  cut  for  hay  in  the  spring,  and  the  land  plowed  again 
immediately  and  thoroughly  harrowed,  as  in  the  fall 
previous.  Then  every  time  the  most  forward  bunches 
of  grass  reach  four  to  six  inches  in  hight,  run  over  the 
land  with  a  heel-scrape  or  any  other  implement  that 
shaves  off  the  surface  of  the  soil.  To  be  effective  this 
shaving  process  must  be  so  thorough  that  every  sprig  of 
grass  is  cut.  If  this  is  kept  up  till  October  every  ves- 
tige of  Johnson  grass  will  be  destroyed.  It  may  come 
again  from  seed  the  next  year,  but  the  seedling  plants 
may  be  killed,  like  any  other  weed,  by  thorough  culti- 
vation. Care  should  be  taken  not  to  let  any  of  them 
get  large  enough  to  send  out  rootstocks  before  destroy- 
ing them.  Some  badly  infested  farms  have  been  freed 
from  this  pest  by  the  above  method. 

The  usual  practice  is  to  take  one  field  at  a  time  for 
this  treatment,  taking  several  years  to  extend  the  work 
of  eradication  over  the  whole  farm.  With  a  rational 


142      FARM    GRASSES    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES 

system  of  crop  rotation,  and  the  thorough  working  of 
the  soil  common  in  the  north  of  England  and  in  many 
parts  of  this  country,  Johnson  grass  would  not  be  a  pest, 
but  a  valuable  adjunct  to  the  list  of  farm  crops.  The 
climate  of  the  entire  Johnson  grass  area  permits  at 
least  two  crops  a  year  to.  be  grown  on  every  acre  of 
land.  A  crop  of  winter  grain,  hay,  and  one  or  two 
summer  crops  of  cow- pea  hay  or  sorghum  hay  can  be 
grown  on  the  worst  infested  land,  with  little  or  no  in- 
terference from  the  grass,  if  the  land  is  thoroughly 
plowed  and  harrowed  before  planting  each  crop. 

Better  than  all,  however,  on  land  adapted  to  it,  and 
this  includes  nearly  all  the  worst  areas,  alfalfa  can  be 
sown  on  Johnson  grass  land  with  perfect  success.  To 
do  this  the  land  should  be  plowed  and  the  rootstocks 
thoroughly  harrowed  out  early  in  the  fall.  If,  after 
this,  a  good  beating  rain  comes  to  firm  the  soil,  all  the 
better.  Then  sow  the  alfalfa,  at  the  rate  of  20  Ibs.  of 
seed  per  acre,  early  enough  in  the  fall  for  it  to  get  a 
good  start  before  cold  weather.  The  next  summer 
cut  it  promptly  every  time  it  gets  high  enough  to  make 
a  fair  crop  of  hay.  This  treatment  helps  the  alfalfa 
and  greatly  discourages  the  Johnson  grass.  As  alfalfa 
makes  four  or  five  crops  of  hay  a  year  in  the  South 
(six  to  nine  in  some  places),  and  Johnson  grass  only 
three,  and  as  Johnson  grass  gradually  declines  in  yield 
anyway,  so  that  it  yields  very  little  three  or  four  years 
after  the  last  plowing,  the  alfalfa  will,  in  a  few  years, 
be  practically  free  from  the  grass.  What  little  is  left 
adlually  improves  the  quality  of  the  alfalfa  hay. 

After  what  has  been  said  above  it  might  seem  su- 
perfluous to  speak  of  the  proper  management  of  a 


TWO    PROMINENT    SOUTHERN    GRASSES          143 

Johnson  grass  meadow.  Yet  some  farmers  have  a  good 
market  for  the  hay  or  need  it  on  their  own  farms.  It 
is  also  the  belief  of  the  writer  that  when  the  agricul- 
ture of  the  South  is  properly  diversified,  a  fact  which 
is  being  accomplished  rather  rapidly  at  present,  John- 
son grass  will  not  be  so  much  of  a  pest  as  it  now  is, 
and  may  occupy  an  important  place  on  stock-farms. 
For  these  reasons  it  is  well  to  include  here  a  statement 
concerning  its  usefulness  for  hay  and  pasture. 

Johnson  grass  is  not  very  satisfactory  for  perma- 
nent pastures.  Although  stock  eat  it  readily  and 
thrive  on  it,  the  yield  of  feed  on  Johnson  grass  pas- 
tures decreases  rapidly  from  year  to  year  until  it  be- 
comes unprofitable.  Many  farmers  say  it  can  be  killed 
out  by  pasturing  in  two  or  three  seasons,  but  there  is 
usually  enough  left  to  start  it  again  when  the  land 
is  plowed  up.  When  used  only  for  meadow  purposes, 
a  Johnson  grass  field  can  be  made  permanently  pro- 
dudlive  by  proper  treatment.  Like  all  grasses  that 
throw  out  abundant  rootstocks,  it  becomes  so  sod-bound 
in  a  few  years  that  the  yield  of  hay  is  greatly  lessened. 
To  correct  this  it  is  necessary  to  plow  the  land  once 
every  two  or  three  years.  It  may  be  plowed  in  either 
fall  or  spring.  Ordinarily  it  is  best  to  plow  the 
meadow  in  early  fall  and  then  to  harrow  it.  If  this  is 
done  regularly  every  two  years  the  meadow  remains 
productive  as  long  as  the  fertility  of  the  land  holds 
out.  It  is  to  be  presumed  that  it  would  produce  good 
crops  indefinitely  with  proper  fertilization. 

Johnson  grass  seed  weighs  about  25  Ibs.  per  bushel. 
The  usual  amount  sown  is  from  a  bushel  to  a  bushel 
and  a  half  per  acre.  It  may  be  sown  either  in  spring 


144      FARM    GRASSES    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES 

or  early  fall.     The  seed  may  be  drilled,  or  sown  broad- 
cast and  covered  by  harrowing. 

The  distribution  of  Johnson  grass  is  shown  in  Fig. 
28,  each  dot  on  the  map  representing  a  correspondent 
who  reported  it  as  an  important  grass  in  his  locality. 
The  map  shows  it  to  be  confined  to  those  portions  of 
the  country  where  the  ground  seldom  or  never  freezes 
to  the  depth  reached  by  the  plow.  It  will  be  noticed 
that  a  well-defined  area  of  Johnson  grass  extends  across 
the  State  of  Alabama  a  little  south  of  the  centre,  turn- 
ing northward  into  northeastern  Mississippi.  Maps 
showing  the  distribution  of  cotton  and  also  of  the  negro 
population  show  this  same  area  in  a  similar  manner. 
It  is  due  to  the  peculiar  soil  of  that  region.  This  is  a 
broad,  fertile  strip  of  black  prairie  soil,  rich  in  lime 
and  other  plant-food.  An  examination  of  the  geolog- 
ical map  shows  this  strip  to  coincide  with  the  rocks  of 
the  cretaceous  period.  With  proper  drainage,  alfalfa 
does  well  on  this  soil.  The  same  soil  occurs  again  in 
an  enormous  area  in  northern  and  central  Texas,  form- 
ing the  famous  region  of  black  waxy  soil  of  that  State. 
Johnson  grass  is  perfectly  at  home  throughout  this 
portion  of  Texas,  but  it  does  not,  by  any  means,  con- 
fine itself  to  these  cretaceous  soils  in  the  South. 

Few  grasses  will  stand  greater  extremes  of  moisture 
than  Johnson  grass.  It  luxuriates  in  moist  soils  and 
along  the  banks  of  drainage  and  irrigating  ditches,  but 
is  at  the  same  time  noted  for  its  ability  to  resist  drouth. 
It  makes  very  little  growth  in  exceedingly  dry  weather, 
but  lies  dormant,  and  springs  up  vigorously  as  soon  as 
rain  comes  again. 


GRASSES    OF    MINOR    IMPORTANCE  177 

closely  resembling  it.  Much  of  the  fescue-seed  sold  in 
America  is  imported,  and  in  consequence  of  our  lack 
of  laws  on  the  subject,  as  stated  before,  it  is  frequently 
the  refuse  of  the  European  trade.  Add  to  this  the 
well-established  position  of  timothy  hay  as  the  stand- 
ard on  our  own  markets,  and  we  have  an  indictment 
that  would  convict  any  grass.  The  difficulty  of  secur- 
ing good  seed  cheaply,  the  uncertainty  of  securing  a 
stand  even  with  good  seed,  and  the  relatively  low 
yield  as  compared  writh  timothy,  probably  account  for 
the  lack  of  recognition  of  meadow-fescue  in  this  coun- 
try. Nevertheless,  stock  show  a  decided  preference 
for  this  grass.  In  experiments  with  cattle  turned  into 
a  grass-garden  where  several  hundred  grasses  and 
legumes  were  growing,  meadow- fescue  and  tall  fescue 
were  always  eaten  in  preference  to  all  others  except  the 
rye-grasses. 

Meadow-fescue  is  occasionally  met  with  in  New 
England,  New  York,  Pennsylvania,  eastern  Kentucky, 
and  very  sparingly  elsewhere  in  the  timothy  region. 
In  eastern  Kansas  it  rises  to  considerable  importance, 
and  a  great  deal  of  seed  of  it  is  grown  there  and  in  ad- 
jacent counties  in  Missouri.  Like  most  all  the  less- 
known  grasses,  when  it  occurs  at  all  in  this  country  it 
is  near  the  outer  margin  of  the  timothy  region. 

In  Oregon,  Washington,  and  northern  Idaho 
meadow  and  tall  fescue  are  regarded  with  considerable 
favor.  On  the  basaltic  wheat-producing  soils  of  east- 
ern Washington  and  northern  Idaho  tall  fescue,  when 
a  good  stand  of  it  is  secured,  is  undoubtedly  one  of 
the  best  grasses,  both  for  hay  and  for  pasture.  If 
the  difficulty  in  securing  a  good  catch  could  be  mas- 


178      FARM    GRASSES    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES 

tered,  it  would  probably  become  a  standard  in  that 
sedtion. 

Tall  fescue  differs  very  little  from  meadow-fescue, 
except  in  being  more  robust  in  habit.  It  grows  four 
to  six  inches  taller,  and  it  appears  to  be  somewhat 
more  difficult  to  get  started.  This  may  be  due  to 
poorer  quality  of  the  seed  ordinarily  secured  from  deal- 
ers. Tall  fescue  seed  is  very  seldom  called  for,  and  is 
about  three  times  as  high-priced  as  meadow- fescue 
seed.  It  also  weighs  only  about  14  Ibs.  per  bushel, 
while  meadow-fescue  seed  weighs  22  Ibs.  The  differ- 
ence is  due  mainly  to  a  greater  amount  of  chaff  left 
in  tall  fescue  seed,  thus  masking,  to  some  extent,  its 
higher  price. 

American  farmers  have  not  had  experience  enough 
with  these  two  grasses  to  determine  the  proper  amount 
of  seed  to  sow  per  acre.  Both  grasses  are  perennials, 
and  outlast  timothy,  both  in  meadows  and  in  pas- 
tures. 

While  it  has  not  been  demonstrated,  it  is  probable 
that  mixtures  of  such  grasses  as  the  fescues,  rye- 
grasses,  orchard-grass,  timothy,  red  top,  and  red, 
white,  and  alsike  clovers,  would  make  pastures  far 
surpassing  blue-grass  on  all  soils  in  the  timothy  region, 
except  in  a  few  areas  already  referred  to  as  special 
blue-grass  regions.  Mixtures  such  as  the  above  are 
generally  used  for  pastures  as  well  as  meadows  across 
the  Atlantic,  and  European  farmers  find  pastures 
profitable,  even  on  high-priced  land.  Perhaps  Amer- 
ican farmers  would  not  be  abandoning  pastures  as 
they  are  if  they  did  not  rely  so  entirely  on  blue-grass 
and  white  clover. 


GRASSES    OF    MINOR    IMPORTANCE  179 

THE      RYE-GRASSES  :       ENGUSH      RYE-GRASS     (Lolium 
perenne) — ITALIAN   RYE-GRASS   (Lolium  italicum} 

These  grasses  are  even  less  popular  in  this  country 
than  the  fescues;  in  fadl,  they  are  practically  un- 
known here,  except  on  the  Pacific  Coast  west  of  the 
Cascade  Mountains,  and  in  a  few  places  in  the  South. 
Yet  they  are  the  most  important  grasses  of  Europe. 
It  is  not  at  al-1  easy  to  account  for  their  lack  of  popu- 
larity on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic.  Stock  certainly 
prefer  them  to  all  other  cultivated  grasses;  their  seed 
is  fairly  reliable,  though  their  scarcity  in  the  markets 
renders  them  high-priced,  and  they  yield  well  on  soil 
suited  to  them.  Although  they  do  not  yield  so  well 
as  timothy,  it  would  seem  that  the  superiority  of  the 
herbage  they  produce  ought  to  give  them  a  place 
among  American  farm  grasses.  There  is,  of  course, 
the  same  difficulty  with  their  seed  that  is  met  with  in 
the  case  of  most  imported  grass-seed  :  we  get  only 
inferior  quality,  as  a  rule.  The  facl:  that  more  seed  per 
acre  is  necessary  than  is  the  case  with  timothy,  and  that 
it  is  more  costly,  added  to  the  somewhat  poor  quality 
of  seed  found  in  our  markets,  probably  accounts,  to 
some  extent  at  least,  for  their  lack  of  standing.  It 
may  be,  too,  that  they  are  not  adapted  to  our  climatic 
conditions,  for  it  is  frequently  the  case  that  crops  that 
flourish  in  Western  Europe  are  adapted  only  to  our 
Pacific  Coast  States.  Certain  it  is  that  the  rye-grasses 
have  gained  no  foothold  to  speak  of  in  this  country, 
except  on  the  Pacific  Coast. 

On  irrigated  plains  in  northern  Italy,  and  on  sandy 
lands  in  the  vicinity  of  Edinburgh,  Scotland,  irrigated 
by  sewage  from  the  city,  Italian  rye-grass  yields  enor- 


180      FARM    GRASSES    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES 

mous  quantities  of  forage.  In  the  latter  locality,  ac- 
cording to  Storer,  it  is  cut  four  or  five  times  in  a 
season.  Italian  rye-grass  is  practically  an  annual,  but 
by  letting  it  ripen  seed  before  cuttirfg  the  hay,  which 
it  is  perfectly  safe  to  do  as  far  as  quality  of  the  hay  is 
concerned,  it  reseeds  itself,  and  is  thus  to  all  purposes 
a  perennial.  The  old  plants  do  not  actually  die  at  the 
end  of  the  first  year,  but  they  do  not  amount  to  any- 
thing after  the  first  crop  year.  English  rye-grass  is 
little  better  in  this  respect,  though  it  is  called  a  peren- 
nial. The  European  farmer  thoroughly  understands 
these  grasses,  and  under  his  care  they  are  the  best  of 
all  the  tame  grasses.  The  American  farmer  has  never 
been  noted  for  bestowing  especial  attention  to  his 
grass-fields.  He  prefers  a  grass  like  timothy,  that  does 
not  need  careful  attention,  though  he  loses  much  from 
the  usual  manner  in  which  he  handles  his  timothy 
meadows. 

West  of  the  Cascade  Mountains,  in  Oregon  and 
Washington,  and  in  the  corresponding  portion  of 
northern  California,  Italian  rye-grass  has  gained  con- 
siderable popularity.  It  does  particularly  well  on 
moist  lands  reclaimed  by  dyking.  It  is  not  generally 
met  with  in  that  section,  but  a  few  farmers  prize  it 
highly.  It  grows  well  on  irrigated  lands  in  central 
Washington,  and  on  the  upland  wheat  soils  of  that 
State  and  northern  Idaho,  near  the  mountains  where 
the  rainfall  is  ample,  but  in  the  latter  region  it  does 
not  grow  a  strong  straw  and  is  liable  to  lodge  badly  in 
unfavorable  weather. 

ENGLISH  RYE-GRASS  is  interesting  from  a  histor- 
ical point  of  view,  as  it  was  the  first  of  the  true  grasses 


GRASSES    OF    MINOR    IMPORTANCE  l8l 

to  be  grown  under  domestication  for  hay  and  pasture 
purposes.  To  the  early  English  farmer  all  grasses 
were  alike.  No  attempt  was  made  to  separate  them 
and  secure  pure  seed  of  the  various  kinds.  When  the 
attempt  was  made,  this  was  the  first  grass  of  which 
pure  seed  was  placed  on  the  market,  and  the  conserva- 
tive English  farmer  has  stuck  to  it  now  for  nearly 
three  centuries.  It  was  introduced  from  England  into 
Germany  and  France.  In  the  language  of  both  these 
countries,  in  order  to  preserve  the  English  pronuncia- 
tion, the  word  "  rye  "  was  spelled  r-a-i.  It  seems  that 
some  later  English  writers  imported  this  word  back 
into  English,  changing  the  i  to  y,  thus  producing  the 
term  ' '  ray  ' '  grass,  sometimes  used  for  the  rye-grasses. 
The  name  "  rye-grass  "  is  somewhat  unfortunate,  since 
it  leads  to  confusion.  The  rye-grasses  are  not  at  all  like 
the  common  cereal  bearing  that  name.  Neither  are 
they  like  the  so-called  wild  rye-grasses  of  our  Western 
States.  But  this  is  not  a  matter  of  much  importance, 
because  of  the  small  part  these  two  grasses  seem  des- 
tined to  play  in  American  agriculture. 

ITALIAN  RYE-GRASS  is  sometimes  used  to  secure  a 
quick  growth  on  lawns  where  blue-grass  is  not  easily 
grown.  This  is  particularly  the  case  around  Wash- 
ington, D.  C.  It  is  very  useful  for  this  purpose.  As 
stated  elsewhere,  it  is  probable  that  the  rye-grasses 
would  prove  useful  in  pasture  mixtures  in  much 
of  the  region  in  which  blue-grass  is  now  the  standard 
grass. 

The  seed  of  the  rye-grasses  weighs  about  20  Ibs. 
per  bushel.  Seedsmen  recommend  two  to  three  bush- 
els of  seed  per  acre  when  sown  alone.  In  mixtures 


1  82       FARM    GRASSES    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES 

the  amount  of  seed  should  be  reduced  approximately 
in  proportion  to  the  number  of  grasses  in  the  mix- 
ture. 


MEADOW   OAT-GRASS  (Arrhenatherum  avenaceum) 

This  is  a  grass  of  comparatively  small  importance 
in  the  United  States.  It  has  two  serious  faults,  each 
of  which  greatly  reduces  its  value.  In  the  first  place, 
it  is  not  very  well  liked  by  stock,  though  it  is  possible 
to  get  them  to  eat  it  readily  after  they  become  accus- 
tomed to  its  peculiar  flavor;  secondly,  it  has  decidedly 
poor  seed  habits.  Within  twenty-four  hours  after  the 
seed  starts  to  ripen  it  begins  to  fall.  In  the  case  of 
a  small  field/of  this  grass,  which  the  writer  grew  for 
seven  years  at  the  Washington  State  Experiment 
Station,  one  season  it  was  noticed  on  Saturday  evening 
that  the  seed  in  the  top  of  the  panicles  was  beginning 
to  turn  brown.  It  had  been  closely  watched  with  a 
view  to  saving  the  seed.  On  Monday  morning  the 
grass  was  cut  with  an  ordinary  grain-binder,  yet  fully 
half  the  seed  was  lost,  partly  by  falling  out  before  cut- 
ting, and  partly  from  shattering  in  the  subsequent 
handling.  Even  if  it  had  no  other  fault,  this  one 
would  render  it  impracticable  for  general  cultivation. 
The  writer  has  met  only  one  farmer  who  was  enthusi- 
astic over  the  merits  of  tall  meadow  oat-grass.  This 
was  in  eastern  Tennessee,  on  the  edge  of  the  timothy 
region.  In  the  timothy  region  proper  it  is  almost 
unknown.  It  occurs  sparingly  all  over  the  country, 
but  is  nowhere  of  great  importance,  and  is  adapted  to 
a  considerable  variety  of  soils.  The  only  reasons  for 
its  occurrence  in  America  at  all  are  that  it  will  thrive 


GRASSES    OF    MINOR    IMPORTANCE  183 

in  warmer  climates  and  on  drier  soils  than  timothy, 
it  is  fairly  easy  to  secure  a  stand,  and  continues  pro- 
ductive for  many  years.  L,ike  orchard-grass,  it  does 
not  become  sod-bound,  unless  the  seed  is  allowed 
to  ripen  and  fall,  stands  pasturing  well,  and  remains 
green  till  late  in  winter.  Tall  meadow  oat-grass 
matures  exactly  with  orchard-grass  and  red  clover,  and 
is  therefore  adapted  to  sowing  with  these  crops. 

VELVET-GRASS   (ffolcus  lanatus) 

The  only  part  of  the  United  States  in  which  velvet- 
grass  occurs  to  an  extent  worthy  of  notice  is  on  the 
Pacific  Coast  west  of  the  Cascade  Mountains,  from 
northern  California  to  the  Canadian  line.  In  that  sec- 
tion it  is  indifferently  called  ' '  velvet-grass ' '  and  "  mes- 
quite."  The  latter  name  should  never  be  applied  to 
this  grass,  as  it  is  used  for  several  other  very  different 
grasses  in  the  Southwest.  In  England  it  is  known  by 
several  names,  the  commonest  being  "velvet-grass," 
"meadow  soft  grass,"  and  ' '  Yorkshire  fog. "  The 
word  ' '  fog ' '  in  this  connection  is  an  old  English  word 
meaning  the  winter  growth  on  meadows.  It  is  applied 
to  this  grass  from  its  habit  of  producing  considerable 
green  herbage  in  winter.  It  is  generally  regarded  as  a 
pest  on  the  Pacific  Coast,  particularly  on  lands  that  are 
very  wet  in  winter  and  very  dry  in  summer.  This  is 
especially  the  case  with  both  sandy  and  peaty  soils  on 
the  Coast.  It  is  not  utilized  for  feed  in  many  localities, 
but  on  the  extensive  areas  of  very  sandy  land  around 
the  mouth  of  the  Columbia  River,  and  at  one  or  two 
points  inland,  it  is  the  chief  reliance,  both  for  hay  and 
for  pasture.  It  yields  ordinarily  about  half  a  ton  of 


FIG.     38 — CRAB-GRASS 


GRASSES    OF    MINOR    IMPORTANCE  185 

hay  per  acre.  The  hay  is  remarkable  for  its  lightness, 
a  ton  of  it  being  much  more  bulky  than  a  like  weight 
of  other  kinds  of  hay.  Horses  and  cattle  nearly  starve 
before  they  acquire  a  taste  for  velvet-grass,  but  when 
the  taste  is  once  acquired  they  thrive  upon  it  remark- 
ably well,  showing  that  it  is  highly  nutritious.  The 
whole  plant  is  covered  by  a  growth  of  wool-like  hairs, 
from  which  fact  the  name  is  derived.  It  is  unworthy 
of  attention  except  on  the  classes  of  soils  above  men- 
tioned. On  these  soils  it  drives  out  all  other  grasses. 

MISCELLANEOUS  GRASSES 

CRAB-GRASS  {Panicum  sanguinale). — This  grass 
(Fig.  38.)  is  of  considerable  importance  in  the  South. 
Its  distribution  is  shown  in  Fig.  39.  It  is  not  a  culti- 
vated grass  in  the  ordinary  sense,  as  its  seed  is  never 
sown.  It  comes  up  as  a  weed  in  corn-fields  after  the 
last  cultivation,  and  furnishes  no  inconsiderable  amount 
of  pasture.  A  considerable  proportion  of  the  hay  pro- 
duced in  the  South  is  made  from  this  volunteer  growth 
of  crab-grass.  The  yield  is  light,  seldom  exceeding  a 
ton  per  acre,  and  the  hay  is  of  only  moderate  quality. 
It  has  a  very  good  standing  with  Southern  farmers, 
but  is  not  often  seen  on  the  markets.  It  is  mostly  fed 
on  the  farms  where  it  is  grown. 

CARPET-GRASS  {Panicum  compressum) . — This  is 
an  important  pasture-grass  in  eastern  Texas,  Louisiana, 
southern  Mississippi,  southern  Alabama,  and  parts  of 
Florida.  It  sends  out  long,  creeping  stems  which  root 
at  the  joints,  and  form  a  very  dense,  even  carpet  of 
sod,  whence  its  name.  Stock  are  very  fond  of  it,  and 
it  is  highly  prized  where  it  grows.  On  sandy  lands 


GRASSES    OF    MINOR    IMPORTANCE  187 

that  are  heavily  pastured  carpet-grass  will  Tun  out 
Bermuda  grass.  It  produces  very  little  seed,  which  is 
difficult  to  gather.  An  occasional  method  of  seeding 
land  to  carpet-grass  is  to  mow  it  at  a  time  when  ripe 
seed  is  most  abundant,  and  scatter  the  dry  hay  on  the 
land  to  be  seeded.  This  grass  does  not  thrive  very 
far  from  the  Gulf  Coast.  It  seems  to  prefer  uplands, 
and  thrives  on  either  sandy  or  clay  soils.  It  is  a 
splendid  pasture-grass,  but  does  not  compare  with 
Bermuda  grass  in  the  amount  of  forage  produced.  The 
distribution  of  carpet-grass  is  shown  in  Fig.  40. 

SLENDER  WHEAT-GRASS  {Agropyron  tenerum). 
— Of  the  many  valuable  wild  grasses  of  our  Western 
plains  and  mountain  regions,  slender  wheat-grass  is 
one  of  the  few  that  are  promising  on  cultivated  land. 
It  does  well  on  land  entirely  too  dry  for  timothy,  and 
stands  the  most  rigorous  winters.  Whether  it  possesses 
any  advantages  over  brome- grass  for  cold,  dry  climates 
is  not  fully  determined.  It  does  not  become  sod-bound 
like  the  latter,  and  may  therefore  prove  to  be  better 
for  meadows.  As  the  seed  is  now  available  on  the 
markets  it  is  probable  that  the  possibilities  of  slender 
wheat -grass  will  be  determined  in  the  near  future.  It 
is  worth  trial. 

Agropyron  divergent,  the  great  ' '  bunch-grass  ' '  of 
eastern  Washington,  eastern  Oregon,  and  northern 
Idaho,  and  a  near  relative  of  slender  wheat-grass,  is 
also  a  promising  grass  for  the  driest  cultivated  lands 
in  the  region  where  it  is  native.  It  yields  a  fair  crop 
of  very  good  hay  on  drier  lands  than  any  of  the  culti- 
vated grasses.  Its  seed  is  sometimes  offered  by  Western 
seedsmen,  but  it  is  somewhat  unreliable. 


GRASSES    OF    MINOR    IMPORTANCE  189 

Agropyron  occidentale,  the  well  known  "bluestem" 
of  Montana  and  Colorado,  is  the  most  valuable  of 
all  the  Agropyrons.  It  has  been  heralded  as  a  great 
dry  land  grass.  It  is  adapted  to  a  great  variety  of 
conditions,  but  is  most  useful  on  irrigated  meadows 
in  the  vicinity  of  Harlem,  Montana,  where  it  is  exten- 
sively cut  for  hay.  In  Colorado  it  constitutes  an  im- 
portant part  of  the  upland  hay.  In  the  Dakotas, 
prairie  sod,  when  plowed  up  and  left  to  itself,  is  soon 
covered  by  a  growth  of  bluestem.  In  yield,  on  well- 
irrigated  land,  it  equals  timothy.  Where  its  hay  is 
well  known  it  usually  sells  at  a  slight  advance  over 
timothy.  Horses  are  especially  fond  of  it,  and  it  is 
very  nutritious.  This  grass  is  somewhat  weedy  in 
charadler,  having  strong  underground  stems,  and  is 
difficult  to  eradicate  when  once  established.  Yet  it  is 
not  bothersome  in  grain-fields.  In  order  to  keep  blue- 
stem  meadows  in  a  productive  condition,  it  is  necessary 
to  break  them  up  every  three  or  four  years.  (A  plat  of 
bluestem  in  the  grass-garden  of  the  Department  of 
Agriculture  is  seen  in  Fig.  41.) 

There  are  a  few  other  wild  grasses  of  the  West  that 
may  prove  valuable  for  hay  production  on  lands  that 
do  not  now  produce  tame  hay  crops,  for  lack  of  suffi- 
cient moisture;  but  as  their  value  is  as  yet  entirely 
problematical,  they  do  not  need  to  be  enumerated 
here.  Extensive  investigations  are  now  in  progress, 
with  a  view  to  testing  them  for  this  purpose. 

LARGE  WATER -GRASS  {Paspalum  dilatatum)  is 
one  of  the  native  grasses  of  the  South  that  has  recently 
attracted  attention,  particularly  for  pasture  purposes. 
It  is  exceedingly  well  liked  by  stock,  and  furnishes. 


190      FARM    GRASSES    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES 

abundance  of  feed  on  medium  to  moist  soils.  The 
stems  grow  two  and  one-half  to  three  feet  high,  but 
are  not  leafy  enough  to  produce  much  hay.  It  is  de- 
cidedly bunchy  in  habit,  each  clump  producing  a  great 
mass  of  succulent  root  leaves  which  are  greedily  eaten 
by  all  classes  of  stock.  Prof.  S.  M.  Tracy,  for  many 


FIG.     41 — PLAT     OF     BLUESTEM     IN     THE     GRASS-GARDEN     AT 
WASHINGTON,     D.    C. 

years  director  of  the  Mississippi  Experiment  Station, 
regards  this  as  one  of  the  valuable  pasture-grasses  of 
the  South.  Its  seed  has  recently  been  made  available 
in  the  markets. 

GUINEA-GRASS  (Panicum  maximum)  and  Para 
grass  {Panicum  molle}  are  two  grasses  that  have  at- 
tracted considerable  attention  in  southern  Florida  in 
recent  years.  They  are  the  standard  grasses  of  the 
West  Indies,  where  the  green  forage,  particularly  from 
guinea-grass,  furnishes  most  of  the  roughage  fed  in 


GRASSES    OF    MINOR    IMPORTANCE  191 

cities.  It  is  brought  to  market  fresh  from  the  field  on 
the  backs  of  donkeys,  and  peddled  about  the  streets. 
Para  grass  is  much  used  for  pasture  on  the  islands.  In 
Florida  neither  of  these  grasses  produce  seed.  They 
are  propagated  by  cuttings,  and  the  expense  of  secur- 
ing a  stand  greatly  reduces  their  usefulness.  Most  of 
the  arable  land  of  southern  Florida  is  so  valuable  for 
trucking  purposes  that  farmers  cannot  afford  to  grow 
grasses  of  any  kind;  but  since  these  are  the  only  ones 
yet  found  that  thrive  under  the  peculiar  soil  and  cli- 
matic condition  of  the  region,  and  since  considerable 
feed  is  required  for  the  farm  stock,  many  attempts  have 
been  made  to  grow  them.  Grasses  are  particularly 
needed  on  the  few  dairy-farms  t<5  be  found  in  that  re- 
gion. The  amount  of  milk  produced  is  far  less  than 
the  demand,  largely  for  the  reason  that  dairymen  are 
compelled  to  ship  hay  from  the  North.  If  practical 
methods  of  establishing  these  grasses  can  be  worked 
out,  it  will  render  dairying  a  profitable  industry  there. 
Prof.  Frank  S.  Earle,  of  the  Cuban  Department  of 
Agriculture,  says,  regarding  these  two  grasses  :  ' '  As 
to  guinea-grass,  it  is  the  best  pasture  and  hay  grass  in 
the  world.  I  do  not  know  how  it  will  do  in  Florida 
sands,  as  I  have  seen  it  only  in  rich  lands.  It  is  usu- 
ally planted  by  slips.  I  have  never  seen  the  seed,  nor 
heard  of  its  being  planted.  The  Para  grass  is  not  as 
nutritious  as  the  guinea-grass,  and  it  grows  best'  in 
wet,  half-swampy  places.  It  is  as  hard  to  kill  as  John- 
son grass,  and  I  regard  it  as  a  rather  bad  weed.  Still, 
like  Johnson  grass,  it  is  a  fine  thing  in  its  place,  and 
yields  enormously  on  lands  that  are  too  wet  for  any- 
thing else." 


XIII 

GRASSES    FOR    SPECIAL    CONDITIONS 

ATTERED  over  the  country,  in  more  or  less  ex- 
tensive  areas,  are  tracts  of  land  that  for  one 
reason  or  another  are  not  suitable  for  ordinary 
crops;  yet,  for  some  special  reason,  it  may  be 
desirable  to  utilize  them.  Such  are  the  salt-marshes 
along  the  seaboard,  inland  swamps  and  overflowed 
lands,  sandy  lands  that  are  liable  to  drift  if  left  un- 
covered, lands  too  dry  for  ordinary  crops,  and  the  alka- 
line soils  of  the  arid  and  semi-arid  West.  There  are 
grasses  more  or  less  perfectly  adapted  to  all  of  these 
unusual  conditions,  but,  unfortunately,  most  of  them 
are  not  amenable  to  cultivation.  Most  of  them  have 
such  poor  seed  habits  that  it  is  impracticable  to  save 
their  seed,  and  the  best  that  can  be  done  is  to  make 
use  of  them  as  they  are  found  growing.  Just  why 
certain  grasses  should  grow  so  abundantly  without  as- 
sistance, and  yet  fail  to  respond  to  man's  efforts  to 
propagate  them,  is  not  entirely  clear.  In  most  cases 
they  are  grasses  which  are  adapted  to  a  very  narrow 
range  of  conditions.  A  very  slight  change  in  their  en 
vironment  seems  to  be  sufficient  to  cause  them  to  fail. 
In  order  to  succeed  with  them  we  should  have  to  learn 
their  peculiarities  better  than  we  know  them  now.  It 
is  not  surprising  that  we  are  ignorant  of  these  little  util- 
19* 


1 62      FAKM     GRASSES    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES 

ington,  and  northwestern  California.  Along  the 
Pacific  Coast  west  of  the  Cascade  Mountains  orchard- 
grass  thrives  remarkably  well,  and  this  is  one  section 
in  which  it  vies  with  timothy  in  a  timothy  region. 
The  worst  disadvantage  which  it  possesses  in  this  sec- 
tion is  its  earliness.  In  all  the  region  west  of  the 
Rocky  Mountains  the  rains  fall  mostly  in  winter, 
while  the  summers  are  dry.  West  of  the  Cascades  in 
Oregon,  and  more  particularly  in  Washington,  orchard- 
grass  is  frequently  ready  to  cut  before  the  spring  rains 
are  over,  and  it  is  therefore  not  always  possible  to  cure 
the  hay.  Timothy  comes  on  about  ten  days  later,  and 
thus  stands  a  better  chance  of  finding  favorable  haying 
weather.  This  objection  does  not  hold  east  of  the 
Cascades  and  in  the  Rocky  Mountain  region.  In  the 
Mountain  States  orchard- grass  is  much  prized  as  a 
companion  to  alfalfa.  It  matures  with  the  first  cut- 
ting of  alfalfa,  and  improves  the  quality  of  the  hay. 
It  is  also  a  valuable  grass  to  mix  with  alfalfa  for  pas- 
tures, greatly  reducing  the  risk  from  bloat,  and  it  has 
no  tendency  to  spread  and  choke  out  the  alfalfa. 

Orchard-grass  occurs  sparingly  throughout  the 
timothy  region,  but  is  nowhere  an  important  grass  in 
that  area,  except  in  a  few  small  sections  previously 
mentioned.  It  is  used  considerably  in  New  England 
and  adjoining  States  as  a  constituent  of  meadow  and 
pasture  mixtures,  and  probably  deserves  to  be  much 
more  generally  used-  for  pasture  purposes  all  over  the 
Northern  States. 

Orchard-grass  seed,  as  found  on  the  markets,  is 
usually  of  good  quality.  It  weighs  about  14  Ibs.  per 
bushel.  When  grown  for  seed,  it  yields  ordinarily  15 


REDTOP     AND     ORCHARD-GRASS  163 

to  1 8  bushels  per  acre.  The  retail  price  of  the  seed 
varies  from  15  to  25  cents  per  pound.  When  sown 
alone,  20  to  25  Ibs.  of  good  seed  per  acre  is  sufficient. 
In  pasture  mixtures,  3  to  6  Ibs.  are  usually  sown. 

This  grass  is  highly  prized  in  New  Zealand,  where 
it  is  known  as  "  cocksfoot,"  as  it  is  also  in  England. 
This  name  is  derived  from  the  fancied  resemblance  of 
the  spreading  seed  head  to  a  chicken's  foot. 


XI 


BROME-GRASS  (Bromus  inermis) 

IROME-GRASS  (Fig.  34)  is  one  of  the  few  recently 
introduced  grasses  that  have  won  a  perma- 
nent  place  in  American  agriculture.  Its  in- 
troduction is  to  be  credited  to  the  work  of  the 
State  experiment  stations  and  the  National  Depart- 
ment of  Agriculture.  It  has  been  grown  by  them  ex- 
perimentally for  a  good  many  years,  but  began  to 
attract  general  attention  in  the  early  nineties.  It  was 
at  first  heralded  by  enthusiastic  seedsmen  as  a  panacea 
for  all  the  ills  of  the  farmer.  Without  question  it  is 
the  best  pasture-grass  yet  found  for  the  Prairie  States 
of  the  Northwest  and  Pacific  Northwest.  On  the  great 
wheat-producing  soils  of  the  sections  mentioned  it  is 
a  pasture-grass  unequaled  in  productiveness  by  any 
other  pasture-grass  in  the  country  (unless  we  except 
the  Bermuda  grass  of  the  South),  and  surpassed  only 
by  blue-grass  in  the  quality  of  its  herbage.  It  is  now 
firmly  intrenched  in  the  favor  of  farmers  from  Kansas 
to  the  Canadian  line  and  west  to  the  Cascade  Moun- 
tains of  Oregon  and  Washington.  It  is  also  a  valuable 
grass  for  moderately  dry  uplands  in  parts  of  California. 
It  is  distinctly  a  Northern  grass,  having  never  suc- 
ceeded south  of  the  latitude  of  St.  Louis,  except  at 
high  elevations  in  the  Mountain  States.  It  is  perfedlly 
hardy,  even  in  Manitoba.  In  the  dry  summers  of  the 
Northern  Pacific  Coast  region  (east  of  the  Cascade 
164 


FIG.     34 — BROME-GRASS 


1 66      FARM    GRASSES    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES 

Mountains)  it  furnishes  more  green  feed  than  any 
other  of  the  true  grasses.  Noted  for  its  ability  to  with- 
stand drouth,  it  yet  does  well  on  good  moist  soils.  It 
will  not  thrive,  however,  on  soils  that  are  distinctly 
wet.  It  is  particularly  at  home  in  the  Red  River  Val- 
ley of  North  Dakota  and  on  the  peculiar  basaltic  soils 
of  eastern  Washington,  eastern  Oregon,  and  northern 
Idaho.  Its  distribution  is  shown  in  Fig.  35,  each  dot 
representing  a  locality  from  which  correspondents  re- 
port it  important.  It  is  generally  supposed  that  brome- 
grass  is  not  adapted  to  the  more  humid  climate  of  the 
timothy  region,  but  the  fact  is  it  is  nearly  or  quite  as 
valuable  over  much  of  this  region  as  it  is  farther  west. 
In  the  West  it  had  no  competitors  as  a  pasture-grass, 
while  in  the  East  it  had  to  compete  with  several  long- 
established  and  highly  satisfactory  grasses,  particularly 
timothy  and  blue-grass.  It  has  already  been  stated 
that  nearly  all  the  grass  literature  issued  by  the  State 
experiment  stations  comes  from  those  stations  outside 
of  the  region  of  timothy,  blue-grass,  and  red  clover. 
Having  very  satisfactory  meadow  and  pasture  crops, 
the  farmers  of  the  timothy  region  have  not  given 
brome-grass  a  thorough  trial.  As  an  illustration  of 
the  attitude  of  these  farmers  toward  new  candidates  for 
their  favor,  we  may  quote  the  remark  of  an  Ohio  farmer 
when  asked,  in  a  circular  letter,  what  were  the  hay 
and  pasture  problems  of  his  sedlion.  "  We  have  no 
problems  of  this  kind,"  was  his  reply.  "  What  we 
need  is  to  know  how  to  build  barns  more  cheaply  and 
how  to  handle  our  livestock  better.  Our  meadows  and 
pastures  already  produce  as  much  feed  of  the  best 
quality  as  land  can  be  made  to  produce."  This  may 


1 68      FARM    GRASSES    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES 

or  may  not  be  true,  but  it  shows  that  grass  problems 
are  not  pressing  in  that  section.  Yet  it  is  probably 
true  that  brome-grass  would  add  much  to  the  produc- 
tiveness of  pastures,  even  in  Ohio.  J.  E.  Wing,  the 
well-known  agricultural  writer  and  lecturer,  whose 
farm  is  in  west  central  Ohio,  says  that  a  mixture  of 
brome-grass  and  alfalfa  will  carry  six  times  as  much 
stock  there  as  blue-grass,  and  do  it  better.  Yet  both 
of  these  crops  are,  or  were  until  very  recently,  nearly 
unknown  in  that  State.  Alfalfa  is  now  rapidly  gain- 
ing favor  throughout  the  timothy  region,  and  it  is 
probable  that  brome-grass  will,  in  time,  do  the  same 
over  much  of  this  region. 

It  has  been  stated  on  a  previous  page  that  palata- 
bility  is  perhaps  the  most  important  single  character- 
istic of  a  grass.  If  stock  like  it  sufficiently  well  to  eat 
enough  to  fatten  on,  it  deserves  attention.  It  is  not 
claimed  that  brome-grass  is  as  palatable  as  blue-grass, 
but  the  former  is  eaten  readily  by  all  classes  of  stock, 
and  its  superior  productiveness  would  render  it  more 
profitable  than  blue-grass  in  all  sections  except  those 
where  blue-grass  is  at  its  best,  such  as  the  Blue- 
Grass  Region  of  Kentucky,  north  Missouri,  and  south- 
western Iowa.  Since  brome-grass  is  more  a  pasture  than 
a  hay  grass,  and  as  the  farmers  of  the  eastern  part 
of  the  timothy  region  are  gradually  abandoning  the 
use  of  pastures  in  favor  of  more  productive  methods  of 
raising  feed,  it  is  doubtful  if  brome-grass  has  an  im- 
portant place  to  fill  in  that  section.  But  farther  west, 
where  beef  production  renders  pastures  necessary,  it 
would  undoubtedly  add  to  the  profit  of  the  farmer. 

Brome-grass  was  at  first  heralded  as  a  great  hay- 


BROMK-GRASS  1 69 

producing  grass,  but  it  has  been  a  disappointment  to 
many  farmers  in  this  respecl.  'The  disappointment 
was  due  to  too  great  expectations.  It  does  produce  a 
fine  crop  of  hay,  apparently  the  equal  of  timothy,  for 
one  or  two  years,  but  by  the  third  year,  except  on  very 
rich,  moist  land,  it  becomes  so  sod-bound  that  it  sends 
up  very  few  seed-stalks,  though  it  continues  indefinitely 
to  produce  an  abundance  of  short,  leafy  growth,  excel- 
lent for  pasture.  A  few  instances  are  reported  in 
which  farmers  have  plowed  the  sod  in  the  fall  and 
harrowed  it  down  smooth,  thereby  renewing  it  to  full 
vigor  as  a  hay  producer.  Experience  in  this  line  is 
yet  too  meagre  to  justify  the  assertion  that  this  prac- 
tice would  be  generally  successful.  It  is  certainly 
worth  trying. 

Brome-grass  hay  is  not  yet  sufficiently  known  on 
the  markets  to  enable  us  to  pass  final  judgment  upon 
it.  Experiments  have  demonstrated  that  it  is  as  nu- 
tritious as  timothy,  and  abundant  experience  shows  it 
to  be  relished  by  stock.  But  the  same  is  true  of  sev- 
eral other  kinds  of  hay  that  have  little  standing  on  the 
markets.  It  requires  long  experience  of  many  feeders 
to  settle  the  status  of  any  kind  of  hay.  The  men  who 
feed  livery  horses  in  the  cities  are  the  jury  that  passes 
final  judgment  in  matters  of  this  kind,  and  their  dic- 
tum furnishes  the  market  rating  of  all  classes  of  hay. 
When  we  have  learned  more  about  how  to  grow  brome- 
hay,  and  its  true  value  has  been  determined  by  the 
feeder,  it  may  become  a  standard,  particularly  in  the 
markets  of  the  Northwest.  Like  timothy,  it  possesses 
the  advantage  of  producing  good  seed  in  abundance. 
The  seed  is  easily  harvested,  and  may  be  threshed  on 


1 70      FARM    GRASSES    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES 

an  ordinary  grain- thresher  with  proper  riddles  and 
proper  control  of  the  draft.  The  straw,  after  the  seed 
is  threshed  out,  is  readily  eaten  by  stock.  This  grass 
produces  rather  abundant  aftermath,  which  furnishes 
excellent  grazing.  On  the  approach  of  winter  it  turns 
brown,  but  does  not  lose  its  palatability,  and  it  fur- 
nishes good  pasture,  even  under  light  snow. 

Brome-grass  is  usually  sown  in  spring,  at  the  rate 
of  20  Ibs.  of  good,  clean  seed  per  acre.  The  seed  does 
not  feed  well  through  ordinary  drills,  and  it  is  best  to 
sow  it  by  hand.  Like  most  permanent  grasses  in  the 
North,  it  makes  very  little  growth  the  first  year  from 
spring  sowing,  though  it  makes  good  pasture  from 
midsummer  on.  The  next  year  it  makes  a  fine  crop 
of  hay.  On  the  best  soils  it  makes  a  good  crop  still 
another  season,  but  then  begins  to  get  sod-bound,  after 
which  its  best  use  is  for  pasture,  unless  it  is  plowed  up 
and  harrowed  in  fall,  as  previously  suggested.  West 
of  the  Rockies  it  is  best  to  plow  the  land  for  brome- 
grass  in  early  spring,  shortly  before  sowing.  East  of 
the  Rockies  fall  plowing  is  advisable.  In  the  sections 
where  brome-grass  is  now  well  established  it  is  not 
wise  to  sow  it  with  a  nurse  crop.  Farther  east,  where 
there  is  more  summer  rain,  it  could  be  sown  advan- 
tageously with  any  kind  of  spring  grain.  East  of  the 
Dakotas  it  could  be  sown  in  late  summer  with  excel- 
lent results.  Sown  thus,  it  ought  to  make  a  full  crop 
the  next  year. 

Until  recently  most  of  the  brome-seed  sold  by  deal- 
ers was  imported  from  Central  Europe,  where  this 
grass  has  been  a  standard  for  more  than  half  a  century 
(Southern  Russia  and  Northern  Austria).  On  account 


BROME-GRASS  171 

of  the  absence  of  laws  in  this  country  to  protect  farmers 
against  worthless  seeds,  the  quality  of  imported  brome- 
seed  has  been  generally  very  poor.  In  growing  this 
seed  it  is  extremely  important  to  allow  it  to  ripen  thor- 
oughly. This  can  be  done,  as  the  grass  holds  its  seed 
well.  It  is  best  to  let  it  stand  till  it  begins  to  shatter 
a  little,  unless  the  grower  is  expert  enough  to  tell  by 
other  signs  when  it  is  ready  to  cut.  If  cut  too  early 
the  seed  is  so  light  that  it  cannot  be  cleaned  properly 
and  will  not  germinate  readily.  Brome-seed  of  the 
highest  quality  is  grown  in  eastern  Washington  and 
northern  Idaho,  where  this  seed  is  a  standard  on  the 
markets.  Good  seed  is  also  produced  in  the  Dakotas 
and  neighboring  States. 

In  sod-forming  charadler  brome-grass  is  much  like 
blue-grass,  but  is  much  coarser,  and  not  so  pleasing  in 
color.  The  one  charadler  which  first  gained  recogni- 
tion for  it  in  this  country  is  its  ability  to  grow  under 
adverse  climatic  conditions.  It  is  not  a  desert  grass 
by  any  means,  but,  in  cold  climates,  it  will  grow  on  as 
dry  land  as  any  of  the  tame  grasses.  It  has  about  the 
same  ability  to  grow  on  dry  land  as  alfalfa,  but,  unlike 
the  latter,  it  does  not  thrive  in  warm  climates. 

Brome-grass  has  had  several  names  applied  to  it  by 
seed  dealers  and  agricultural  writers,  such  as  "  awn- 
less  brome, "  ' '  Hungarian  brome, "  ' (  Russian  brome/ ' 
"Russian  forage  grass/'  "  beardless  brome, "  etc., 
but  the  farmers  who  grow  it  use  the  simple  name 
"  brome-grass.  V  It  is  frequently  confused  with  the 
so-called  broom-sedge  grasses  of  the  South  and  West 
—grasses  very  different  from  it  in  all  essential  char- 
acters. 


FIG.     36 — CHESS,     OR     CHEAT 


BROME-GRASS  173 

There  are  several  native  species  of  the  genus 
Bromus  which  are  more  or  less  promising  under  culti- 
vation, especially  on  dry  lands  west  of  the  Rocky  Moun- 
tains. Two  of  these  are  worthy  of  attention — namely, 
Bromus  marginatus  and  Bromus  carinatus.  Both  of 
these  wild  species  are  very  variable,  and  some  forms  of 
them  are  undoubtedly  valuable.  Their  possibilities 
are  being  exploited  by  the  experiment  stations  in  the 
West.  As  yet  they  have  no  satisfactory  common 
names.  One  farmer  in  a  dry  section  of  southwestern 
Oregon  grows  Bromus  marginatus  under  the  name  of 
* '  eight-dollar  grass,"  having  secured  his  start  of  it 
from  the  side  of  a  mountain  bearing  that  name.  It  is 
hoped  that  suitable  local  names  for  them  may  become 
well  enough  established  to  warrant  their  general  use. 

Another  representative  of  this  genus  is  the  well- 
known  cheat  or  chess  (Uromus  secalinus),  Fig.  36,  of 
the  grain-fields.  In  the  Willamette  Valley,  Oregon, 
and  in  the  Blue  Mountains  of  the  same  State,  cheat  is 
grown  for  hay  to  a  considerable  extent.  It  is  an 
annual,  adapted  to  sowing  in  the  fall.  It  yields  quite 
well,  but  the  hay  is  not  of  high  quality. 

The  rescue-grass  {Bromus  unioloides),  Fig.  37,  of 
the  South  is  another  representative.  This  is  also  an 
annual.  In  south  central  Texas  this  grass  grows  wild 
quite  generally.  It  is  occasionally  sown  for  winter 
pastures  throughout  the  South,  for  which  purpose  it 
has  some  value,  but  it  possesses  few,  if  any,  advantages 
as  a  winter  pasture  in  that  section  over  the  common 
cereals.  It  would  probably  thrive  a  little  farther 
south  than  the  cereals.  In  Georgia  and  adjacent 
States  rescue-grass  is  frequently  sold  under  the  name 


FIG.    37 — RESCUE-GRASS 


BROME-GRASS  175 

'  '  Arctic  grass. ' '  This  name  was  given  by  a  seedsman, 
with  a  view  to  inducing  farmers  to  grow  it  more  gener- 
ally. A  few  Southern  seedsmen  sell  cheat-seed  for 
rescue,  some  using  the  latter  name  and  some  the  name 
' '  Arctic  grass. ' '  There  is  considerable  advantage  to  the 
seedsman  from  this  practice,  for  he  can  get  cheat-seed 
very  cheap  at  the  large  grain  elevators  of  the  Central 
West.  Men  who  practice  this  deception  console  them- 
selves with  the  idea  that,  after  all,  cheat  is  about  as 
good  a  grass  as  rescue.  They  are  wrong  in  this.  In 
addition  to  making  hay  inferior  to  rescue  hay,  it  makes 
less  abundant  winter  pasture,  and  in  some  places  is  a 
bad  weed  in  grain-fields. 


XII 


GRASSES    OF    MINOR    IMPORTANCE 

ME  of  the  grasses  discussed  in  this  chapter  are 
the  most  important  grasses  of  Europe.     It  is 
somewhat  difficult  to  account  for  the  lack  of 
appreciation  they  find  among  our  farmers. 

MEADOW-FESCUE   AND   TAIJ,    FESCUE 
(Festuca  pratensis  and  var.  elatior) 

Meadow-fescue  is  frequently  called  ' '  English  blue- 
grass  ' '  — an  unfortunate  name,  since  it  leads  to  confu- 
sion; it  is  not  a  near  relative  of  our  blue-grass.  And 
another  very  different  grass  (Poa  compressa)  is  called 
' '  Canadian  blue-grass, ' '  and  sometimes  ' '  English  blue- 
grass."  Meadow-fescue  is  one  of  the  most  important 
grasses  of  England  and  the  Continent  of  Europe,  being 
rivaled  there  only  by  the  rye-grasses.  It  has  been  re- 
peatedly urged  upon  the  American  farmer,  but  he  has 
persistently  refused  to  grow  it.  Some  of  the  reasons  for 
this  are  as  follows  :  In  most  of  the  region  adapted  to  it 
in  this  country  it  does  not  yield  so  well  as  timothy.  Its 
seed  is  costly,  and  it  requires  more  to  seed  an  acre  than 
it  does  of  timothy.  In  addition  to  this,  meadow- 
fescue  seed  is  not  nearly  so  reliable  as  that  of  timothy, 
and  is  more  adulterated,  for  there  are  many  other  seeds 

176 


GRASSES    OF    MINOR    IMPORTANCE  177 

closely  resembling  it.  Much  of  the  fescue-seed  sold  in 
America  is  imported,  and  in  consequence  of  our  lack 
of  laws  on  the  subject,  as  stated  before,  it  is  frequently 
the  refuse  of  the  European  trade.  Add  to  this  the 
well-established  position  of  timothy  hay  as  the  stand- 
ard on  our  own  markets,  and  we  have  an  indictment 
that  would  convict  any  grass.  The  difficulty  of  secur- 
ing good  seed  cheaply,  the  uncertainty  of  securing  a 
stand  even  with  good  seed,  and  the  relatively  low 
yield  as  compared  with  timothy,  probably  account  for 
the  lack  of  recognition  of  meadow-fescue  in  this  coun- 
try. Nevertheless,  stock  show  a  decided  preference 
for  this  grass.  In  experiments  with  cattle  turned  into 
a  grass-garden  where  several  hundred  grasses  and 
legumes  were  growing,  meadow- fescue  and  tall  fescue 
were  always  eaten  in  preference  to  all  others  except  the 
rye- grasses. 

Meadow-fescue  is  occasionally  met  with  in  New 
England,  New  York,  Pennsylvania,  eastern  Kentucky, 
and  very  sparingly  elsewhere  in  the  timothy  region. 
In  eastern  Kansas  it  rises  to  considerable  importance, 
and  a  great  deal  of  seed  of  it  is  grown  there  and  in  ad- 
jacent counties  in  Missouri.  L,ike  most  all  the  less- 
known  grasses,  when  it  occurs  at  all  in  this  country  it 
is  near  the  outer  margin  of  the  timothy  region. 

In  Oregon,  Washington,  and  northern  Idaho 
meadow  and  tall  fescue  are  regarded  with  considerable 
favor.  On  the  basaltic  wheat-producing  soils  of  east- 
ern Washington  and  northern  Idaho  tall  fescue,  when 
a  good  stand  of  it  is  secured,  is  undoubtedly  one  of 
the  best  grasses,  both  for  hay  and  for  pasture.  If 
the  difficulty  in  securing  a  good  catch  could  be  mas; 


178      FARM    GRASSES    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES 

tered,  it  would  probably  become  a  standard  in  that 
section. 

Tall  fescue  differs  very  little  from  meadow-fescue, 
except  in  being  more  robust  in  habit.  It  grows  four 
to  six  inches  taller,  and  it  appears  to  be  somewhat 
more  difficult  to  get  started.  This  may  be  due  to 
poorer  quality  of  the  seed  ordinarily  secured  from  deal- 
ers. Tall  fescue  seed  is  very  seldom  called  for,  and  is 
about  three  times  as  high-priced  as  meadow-fescue 
seed.  It  also  weighs  only  about  14  Ibs.  per  bushel, 
while  meadow-fescue  seed  weighs  22  Ibs.  The  differ- 
ence is  due  mainly  to  a  greater  amount  of  chaff  left 
in  tall  fescue  seed,  thus  masking,  to  some  extent,  its 
higher  price. 

American  farmers  have  not  had  experience  enough 
with  these  two  grasses  to  determine  the  proper  amount 
of  seed  to  sow  per  acre.  Both  grasses  are  perennials, 
and  outlast  timothy,  both  in  meadows  and  in  pas- 
tures. 

While  it  has  not  been  demonstrated,  it  is  probable 
that  mixtures  of  such  grasses  as  the  fescues,  rye- 
grasses,  orchard- grass,  timothy,  redtop,  and  red, 
white,  and  alsike  clovers,  would  make  pastures  far 
surpassing  blue-grass  on  all  soils  in  the  timothy  region, 
except  in  a  few  areas  already  referred  to  as  special 
blue-grass  regions.  Mixtures  such  as  the  above  are 
generally  used  for  pastures  as  well  as  meadows  across 
the  Atlantic,  and  European  farmers  find  pastures 
profitable,  even  on  high-priced  land.  Perhaps  Amer- 
ican farmers  would  not  be  abandoning  pastures  as 
they  are  if  they  did  not  rely  so  entirely  on  blue-grass 
and  white  clover. 


GRASSES    OF    MINOR    IMPORTANCE  179 

THE      RYE-GRASSES  :       ENGUSH      RYE-GRASS     (Lolium 
perenne] — ITALIAN   RYE-GRASS   (Lolium  italicum) 

These  grasses  are  even  less  popular  in  this  country 
than  the  fescues;  in  facl,  they  are  practically  un- 
known here,  except  on  the  Pacific  Coast  west  of  the 
Cascade  Mountains,  and  in  a  few  places  in  the  South. 
Yet  they  are  the  most  important  grasses  of  Europe. 
It  is  not  at  al-1  easy  to  account  for  their  lack  of  popu- 
larity on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic.  Stock  certainly 
prefer  them  to  all  other  cultivated  grasses;  their  seed 
is  fairly  reliable,  though  their  scarcity  in  the  markets 
renders  them  high-priced,  and  they  yield  well  on  soil 
suited  to  them.  Although  they  do  not  yield  so  well 
as  timothy,  it  would  seem  that  the  superiority  of  the 
herbage  they  produce  ought  to  give  them  a  place 
among  American  farm  grasses.  There  is,  of  course, 
the  same  difficulty  with  their  seed  that  is  met  with  in 
the  case  of  most  imported  grass-seed  :  we  get  only 
inferior  quality,  as  a  rule.  The  facl:  that  more  seed  per 
acre  is  necessary  than  is  the  case  with  timothy,  and  that 
it  is  more  costly,  added  to  the  somewhat  poor  quality 
of  seed  found  in  our  markets,  probably  accounts,  to 
some  extent  at  least,  for  their  lack  of  standing.  It 
may  be,  too,  that  they  are  not  adapted  to  our  climatic 
conditions,  for  it  is  frequently  the  case  that  crops  that 
flourish  in  Western  Europe  are  adapted  only  to  our 
Pacific  Coast  States.  Certain  it  is  that  the  rye-grasses 
have  gained  no  foothold  to  speak  of  in  this  country, 
except  on  the  Pacific  Coast. 

On  irrigated  plains  in  northern  Italy,  and  on  sandy 
lands  in  the  vicinity  of  Edinburgh,  Scotland,  irrigated 
by  sewage  from  the  city,  Italian  rye-grass  yields  enor- 


180      FARM    GRASSES    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES 

mous  quantities  of  forage.  In  the  latter  locality,  ac- 
cording to  Storer,  it  is  cut  four  or  five  times  in  a 
season.  Italian  rye-grass  is  practically  an  annual,  but 
by  letting  it  ripen  seed  before  cutting  the  hay,  which 
it  is  perfectly  safe  to  do  as  far  as  quality  of  the  hay  is 
concerned,  it  reseeds  itself,  and  is  thus  to  all  purposes 
a  perennial.  The  old  plants  do  not  actually  die  at  the 
end  of  the  first  year,  but  they  do  not  amount  to  any- 
thing after  the  first  crop  year.  English  rye-grass  is 
little  better  in  this  respect,  though  it  is  called  a  peren- 
nial. The  European  farmer  thoroughly  understands 
these  grasses,  and  under  his  care  they  are  the  best  of 
all  the  tame  grasses.  The  American  farmer  has  never 
been  noted  for  bestowing  especial  attention  to  his 
grass-fields.  He  prefers  a  grass  like  timothy,  that  does 
not  need  careful  attention,  though  he  loses  much  from 
the  usual  manner  in  which  he  handles  his  timothy 
meadows. 

West  of  the  Cascade  Mountains,  in  Oregon  and 
Washington,  and  in  the  corresponding  portion  of 
northern  California,  Italian  rye-grass  has  gained  con- 
siderable popularity.  It  does  particularly  well  on 
moist  lands  reclaimed  by  dyking.  It  is  not  generally 
met  with  in  that  section,  but  a  few  farmers  prize  it 
highly.  It  grows  well  on  irrigated  lands  in  central 
Washington,  and  on  the  upland  wheat  soils  of  that 
State  and  northern  Idaho,  near  the  mountains  where 
the  rainfall  is  ample,  but  in  the  latter  region  it  does 
not  grow  a  strong  straw  and  is  liable  to  lodge  badly  in 
unfavorable  weather. 

ENGLISH  RYE-GRASS  is  interesting  from  a  histor- 
ical point  of  view,  as  it  was  the  first  of  the  true  grasses 


GRASSES    OF    MINOR    IMPORTANCE  l8l 

to  be  grown  under  domestication  for  hay  and  pasture 
purposes.  To  the  early  English  farmer  all  grasses 
were  alike.  No  attempt  was  made  to  separate  them 
and  secure  pure  seed  of  the  various  kinds.  When  the 
attempt  was  made,  this  was  the  first  grass  of  which 
pure  seed  was  placed  on  the  market,  and  the  conserva- 
tive English '  farmer  has  stuck  to  it  now  for  nearly 
three  centuries.  It  was  introduced  from  England  into 
Germany  and  France.  In  the  language  of  both  these 
countries,  in  order  to  preserve  the  English  pronuncia- 
tion, the  word  "  rye  "  was  spelled  r-a-i.  It  seems  that 
some  later  English  writers  imported  this  word  back 
into  English,  changing  the  i  to  jy,  thus  producing  the 
term  ' '  ray  ' '  grass,  sometimes  used  for  the  rye-grasses. 
The  name  ' '  rye-grass  ' '  is  somewhat  unfortunate,  since 
it  leads  to  confusion.  The  rye-grasses  are  not  at  all  like 
the  common  cereal  bearing  that  name.  Neither  are 
they  like  the  so-called  wild  rye-grasses  of  our  Western 
States.  But  this  is  not  a  matter  of  much  importance, 
because  of  the  small  part  these  two  grasses  seem  des- 
tined to  play  in  American  agriculture. 

ITALIAN  RYE-GRASS  is  sometimes  used  to  secure  a 
quick  growth  on  lawns  where  blue-grass  is  not  easily 
grown.  This  is  particularly  the  case  around  Wash- 
ington, D.  C.  It  is  very  useful  for  this  purpose.  As 
stated  elsewhere,  it  is  probable  that  the  rye-grasses 
would  prove  useful  in  pasture  mixtures  in  much 
of  the  region  in  which  blue-grass  is  now  the  standard 
grass. 

The  seed  of  the  rye-grasses  weighs  about  20  Ibs. 
per  bushel.  Seedsmen  recommend  two  to  three  bush- 
els of  seed  per  acre  when  sown  alone.  In  mixtures 


1  82       FARM    GRASSES    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES 

the  amount  of  seed  should  be  reduced  approximately 
in  proportion  to  the  number  of  grasses  in  the  mix- 
ture. 


MEADOW   OAT-GRASS  (Arrhenatherum  avenaceum) 

This  is  a  grass  of  comparatively  small  importance 
in  the  United  States.  It  has  two  serious  faults,  each 
of  which  greatly  reduces  its  value.  In  the  first  place, 
it  is  not  very  well  liked  by  stock,  though  it  is  possible 
to  get  them  to  eat  it  readily  after  they  become  accus- 
tomed to  its  peculiar  flavor;  secondly,  it  has  decidedly 
poor  seed  habits.  Within  twenty-four  hours  after  the 
seed  starts  to  ripen  it  begins  to  fall.  In  the  case  of 
a  small  field  of  this  grass,  which  the  writer  grew  for 
seven  years  at  the  Washington  State  Experiment 
Station,  one  season  it  was  noticed  on  Saturday  evening 
that  the  seed  in  the  top  of  the  panicles  was  beginning 
to  turn  brown.  It  had  been  closely  watched  with  a 
view  to  saving  the  seed.  On  Monda}r  morning  the 
grass  was  cut  with  an  ordinary  grain-binder,  yet  fully 
half  the  seed  was  lost,  partly  by  falling  out  before  cut- 
ting, and  partly  from  shattering  in  the  subsequent 
handling.  Even  if  it  had  no  other  fault,  this  one 
would  render  it  impracticable  for  general  cultivation. 
The  writer  has  met  only  one  farmer  who  was  enthusi- 
astic over  the  merits  of  tall  meadow  oat-grass.  This 
was  in  eastern  Tennessee,  on  the  edge  of  the  timothy 
region.  In  the  timothy  region  proper  it  is  almost 
unknown.  It  occurs  sparingly  all  over  the  country, 
but  is  nowhere  of  great  importance,  and  is  adapted  to 
a  considerable  variety  of  soils.  The  only  reasons  for 
its  occurrence  in  America  at  all  are  that  it  will  thrive 


I 

GRASSES    OF    MINOR    IMPORTANCE  183 

in  warmer  climates  and  on  drier  soils  than  timothy, 
it  is  fairly  easy  to  secure  a  stand,  and  continues  pro- 
dudtive  for  many  years.  Like  orchard-grass,  it  does 
not  become  sod-bound,  unless  the  seed  is  allowed 
to  ripen  and  fall,  stands  pasturing  well,  and  remains 
green  till  late  in  winter.  Tall  meadow  oat-grass 
matures  exactly  with  orchard-grass  and  red  clover,  and 
is  therefore  adapted  to  sowing  with  these  crops. 

VELVET-GRASS   (Holcus  lanatus) 

The  only  part  of  the  United  States  in  which  velvet- 
grass  occurs  to  an  extent  worthy  of  notice  is  on  the 
Pacific  Coast  west  of  the  Cascade  Mountains,  from 
northern  California  to  the  Canadian  line.  In  that  sec- 
tion it  is  indifferently  called  * '  velvet-grass ' '  and  "  mes- 
quite."  The  latter  name  should  never  be  applied  to 
this  grass,  as  it  is  used  for  several  other  very  different 
grasses  in  the  Southwest.  In  England  it  is  known  by 
several  names,  the  commonest  being  * '  velvet-grass, ' ' 
"meadow  soft  grass,"  and  ' (  Yorkshire  fog. "  The 
word  ' '  fog ' '  in  this  connection  is  an  old  English  word 
meaning  the  winter  growth  on  meadows.  It  is  applied 
to  this  grass  from  its  habit  of  producing  considerable 
green  herbage  in  winter.  It  is  generally  regarded  as  a 
pest  on  the  Pacific  Coast,  particularly  on  lands  that  are 
very  wet  in  winter  and  very  dry  in  summer.  This  is 
especially  the  case  with  both  sandy  and  peaty  soils  on 
the  Coast.  It  is  not  utilized  for  feed  in  many  localities, 
but  on  the  extensive  areas  of  very  sandy  land  around 
the  mouth  of  the  Columbia  River,  and  at  one  or  two 
points  inland,  it  is  the  chief  reliance,  both  for  hay  and 
for  pasture.  It  yields  ordinarily  about  half  a  ton  of 


FIG.     38— CRAB-GRASS 


GRASSES    OF    MINOR    IMPORTANCE  185 

hay  per  acre.  The  hay  is  remarkable  for  its  lightness, 
a  ton  of  it  being  much  more  bulky  than  a  like  weight 
of  other  kinds  of  hay.  Horses  and  cattle  nearly  starve 
before  they  acquire  a  taste  for  velvet-grass,  but  when 
the  taste  is  once  acquired  they  thrive  upon  it  remark- 
ably well,  showing  that  it  is  highly  nutritious.  The 
whole  plant  is  covered  by  a  growth  of  wool-like  hairs, 
from  which  facl  the  name  is  derived.  It  is  unworthy 
of  attention  except  on  the  classes  of  soils  above  men- 
tioned. On  these  soils  it  drives  out  all  other  grasses. 

MISCELLANEOUS   GRASSES 

CRAB-GRASS  {Panicum  sanguinale). — This  grass 
(Fig.  38.)  is  of  considerable  importance  in  the  South. 
Its  distribution  is  shown  in  Fig.  39.  It  is  not  a  culti- 
vated grass  in  the  ordinary  sense,  as  its  seed  is  never 
sown.  It  comes  up  as  a  weed  in  corn-fields  after  the 
last  cultivation,  and  furnishes  no  inconsiderable  amount 
of  pasture.  A  considerable  proportion  of  the  hay  pro- 
duced in  the  South  is  made  from  this  volunteer  growth 
of  crab-grass.  The  yield  is  light,  seldom  exceeding  a 
ton  per  acre,  and  the  hay  is  of  only  moderate  quality. 
It  has  a  very  good  standing  with  Southern  farmers, 
but  is  not  often  seen  on  the  markets.  It  is  mostly  fed 
on  the  farms  where  it  is  grown. 

CARPET-GRASS  {Panicum  compressum). — This  is 
an  important  pasture-grass  in  eastern  Texas,  Louisiana, 
southern  Mississippi,  southern  Alabama,  and  parts  of 
Florida.  It  sends  out  long,  creeping  stems  which  root 
at  the  joints,  and  form  a  very  dense,  even  carpet  of 
sod,  whence  its  name.  Stock  are  very  fond  of  it,  and 
it  is  highly  prized  where  it  grows.  On  sandy  lands 


\&' 


GRASSES    OF    MINOR    IMPORTANCE  187 

that  are  heavily  pastured  carpet-grass  will  run  out 
Bermuda  grass.  It  produces  very  little  seed,  which  is 
difficult  to  gather.  An  occasional  method  of  seeding 
land  to  carpet-grass  is  to  mow  it  at  a  time  when  ripe 
seed  is  most  abundant,  and  scatter  the  dry  hay  on  the 
land  to  be  seeded.  This  grass  does  not  thrive  very 
far  from  the  Gulf  Coast.  It  seems  to  prefer  uplands, 
and  thrives  on  either  sandy  or  clay  soils.  It  is  a 
splendid  pasture-grass,  but  does  not  compare  writh 
Bermuda  grass  in  the  amount  of  forage  produced.  The 
distribution  of  carpet-grass  is  shown  in  Fig.  40. 

SLENDER  WHEAT-GRASS  (Agropyron  tenerum). 
— Of  the  many  valuable  wild  grasses  of  our  Western 
plains  and  mountain  regions,  slender  wheat-grass  is 
one  of  the  few  that  are  promising  on  cultivated  land. 
It  does  well  on  land  entirely  too  dry  for  timothy,  and 
stands  the  most  rigorous  winters.  Whether  it  possesses 
any  advantages  over  brome- grass  for  cold,  dry  climates 
is  not  fully  determined.  It  does  not  become  sod-bound 
like  the  latter,  and  may  therefore  prove  to  be  better 
for  meadows.  As  the  seed  is  now  available  on  the 
markets  it  is  probable  that  the  possibilities  of  slender 
wheat-grass  will  be  determined  in  the  near  future.  It 
is  worth  trial. 

Agropyron  divergens,  the  great  ' '  bunch-grass  ' '  of 
eastern  Washington,  eastern  Oregon,  and  northern 
Idaho,  and  a  near  relative  of  slender  wheat-grass,  is 
also  a  promising  grass  for  the  driest  cultivated  lands 
in  the  region  where  it  is  native.  It  yields  a  fair  crop 
of  very  good  hay  on  drier  lands  than  any  of  the  culti- 
vated grasses.  Its  seed  is  sometimes  offered  by  Western 
seedsmen,  but  it  is  somewhat  unreliable. 


GRASSES    OF    MINOR    IMPORTANCE  189 

Agropyron  occidental ,  the  well  known  "bluestem" 
of  Montana  and  Colorado,  is  the  most  valuable  of 
all  the  Agropyrons.  It  has  been  heralded  as  a  great 
dry  land  grass.  It  is  adapted  to  a  great  variety  of 
conditions,  but  is  most  useful  on  irrigated  meadows 
in  the  vicinity  of  Harlem,  Montana,  where  it  is  exten- 
sively cut  for  hay.  In  Colorado  it  constitutes  an  im- 
portant part  of  the  upland  hay.  In  the  Dakotas, 
prairie  sod,  when  plowed  up  and  left  to  itself,  is  soon 
covered  by  a  growth  of  bluestem.  In  yield,  on  well- 
irrigated  land,  it  equals  timothy.  Where  its  hay  is 
well  known  it  usually  sells  at  a  slight  advance  over 
timothy.  Horses  are  especially  fond  of  it,  and  it  is 
very  nutritious.  This  grass  is  somewhat  weedy  in 
character,  having  strong  underground  stems,  and  is 
difficult  to  eradicate  when  once  established.  Yet  it  is 
not  bothersome  in  grain-fields.  In  order  to  keep  blue- 
stem  meadows  in  a  productive  condition,  it  is  necessary 
to  break  them  up  every  three  or  four  years.  (A  plat  of 
bluestem  in  the  grass-garden  of  the  Department  of 
Agriculture  is  seen  in  Fig.  41.) 

There  are  a  few  other  wild  grasses  of  the  West  that 
may  prove  valuable  for  hay  production  on  lands  that 
do  not  now  produce  tame  hay  crops,  for  lack  of  suffi- 
cient moisture;  but  as  their  value  is  as  yet  entirely 
problematical,  they  do  not  need  to  be  enumerated 
here.  Extensive  investigations  are  now  in  progress, 
with  a  view  to  testing  them  for  this  purpose. 

LARGE  WATER-GRASS  (Paspalum  dilatatum)  is 
one  of  the  native  grasses  of  the  South  that  has  recently 
attradled  attention,  particularly  for  pasture  purposes. 
It  is  exceedingly  well  liked  by  stock,  and  furnishes 


1 90      FARM    GRASSES    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES 

abundance  of  feed  on  medium  to  moist  soils.  The 
stems  grow  two  and  one-half  to  three  feet  high,  but 
are  not  leafy  enough  to  produce  much  hay.  It  is  de- 
cidedly bunchy  in  habit,  each  clump  producing  a  great 
mass  of  succulent  root  leaves  which  are  greedily  eaten 
by  all  classes  of  stock.  Prof.  S.  M.  Tracy,  for  many 


FIG.     41 — PLAT     OF     BLUESTEM     IN     THE     GRASS- GARDEN     AT 
WASHINGTON,     D.    C. 

years  director  of  the  Mississippi  Experiment  Station, 
regards  this  as  one  of  the  valuable  pasture-grasses  of 
the  South.  Its  seed  has  recently  been  made  available 
in  the  markets. 

GUINEA-GRASS  {Panicum  maximum)  and  Para 
grass  {Panicum  molle)  are  two  grasses  that  have  at- 
tracted considerable  attention  in  southern  Florida  in 
recent  years.  They  -are  the  standard  grasses  of  the 
West  Indies,  where  the  green  forage,  particularly  from 
guinea-grass,  furnishes  most  of  the  roughage  fed  in 


GRASSES    OF    MINOR    IMPORTANCE  IQI 

cities.  It  is  brought  to  market  fresh  from  the  field  on 
the  backs  of  donkeys,  and  peddled  about  the  streets. 
Para  grass  is  much  used  for  pasture  on  the  islands.  In 
Florida  neither  of  these  grasses  produce  seed.  They 
are  propagated  by  cuttings,  and  the  expense  of  secur- 
ing a  stand  greatly  reduces  their  usefulness.  Most  of 
the  arable  land  of  southern  Florida  is  so  valuable  for 
trucking  purposes  that  farmers  cannot  afford  to  grow 
grasses  of  any  kind;  but  since  these  are  the  only  ones 
yet  found  that  thrive  under  the  peculiar  soil  and  cli- 
matic condition  of  the  region,  and  since  considerable 
feed  is  required  for  the  farm  stock,  many  attempts  have 
been  made  to  grow  them.  Grasses  are  particularly 
needed  on  the  few  dairy-farms  to  be  found  in  that  re- 
gion. The  amount  of  milk  produced  is  far  less  than 
the  demand,  largely  for  the  reason  that  dairymen  are 
compelled  to  ship  hay  from  the  North.  If  practical 
methods  of  establishing  these  grasses  can  be  worked 
out,  it  will  render  dairying  a  profitable  industry  there. 
Prof.  Frank  S.  Earle,  of  the  Cuban  Department  of 
Agriculture,  says,  regarding  these  two  grasses  :  ' '  As 
to  guinea-grass,  it  is  the  best  pasture  and  hay  grass  in 
the  world.  I  do  not  know  how  it  will  do  in  Florida 
sands,  as  I  have  seen  it  only  in  rich  lands.  It  is  usu- 
ally planted  by  slips.  I  have  never  seen  the  seed,  nor 
heard  of  its  being  planted.  The  Para  grass  is  not  as 
nutritious  as  the  guinea-grass,  and  it  grows  best  in 
wet,  half-swampy  places.  It  is  as  hard  to  kill  as  John- 
son grass,  and  I  regard  it  as  a  rather  bad  weed.  Still, 
like  Johnson  grass,  it  is  a  fine  thing  in  its  place,  and 
yields  enormously  on  lands  that  are  too  wet  for  any- 
thing else.' * 


XIII 

GRASSES    FOR    SPECIAL    CONDITIONS 


s 


MATTERED  over  the  country,  in  more  or  less  ex- 
tensive areas,  are  tracts  of  land  that  for  one 
reason  or  another  are  not  suitable  for  ordinary 
crops;  yet,  for  some  special  reason,  it  may  be 
desirable  to  utilize  them.  Such  are  the  salt-marshes 
along  the  seaboard,  inland  swamps  and  overflowed 
lands,  sandy  lands  that  are  liable  to  drift  if  left  un- 
covered, lands  too  dry  for  ordinary  crops,  and  the  alka- 
line soils  of  the  arid  and  semi-arid  West.  There  are 
grasses  more  or  less  perfectly  adapted  to  all  of  these 
unusual  conditions,  but,  unfortunately,  most  of  them 
are  not  amenable  to  cultivation.  Most  of  them  have 
such  poor  seed  habits  that  it  is  impracticable  to  save 
their  seed,  and  the  best  that  can  be  done  is  to  make 
use  of  them  as  they  are  found  growing.  Just  why 
certain  grasses  should  grow  so  abundantly  without  as- 
sistance, and  yet  fail  to  respond  to  man's  efforts  to 
propagate  them,  is  not  entirely  clear.  In  most  cases 
they  are  grasses  which  are  adapted  to  a  very  narrow 
range  of  conditions.  A  very  slight  change  in  their  en 
vironment  seems  to  be  sufficient  to  cause  them  to  fail. 
In  order  to  succeed  with  them  we  should  have  to  learn 
their  peculiarities  better  than  we  know  them  now.  It 
is  not  surprising  that  we  are  ignorant  of  these  little  util- 
192 


GRASSES    FOR    SPECIAL    CONDITIONS  193 

ized  grasses,  for  it  takes  the  combined  experience  of 
many  thousands  of  farmers  to  determine  the  peculiari- 
ties and  adaptability  of  any  new  crop. 

WET    LANDS 

I^ands  too  wet  for  cultivation  are  frequently  ex- 
tremely fertile,  and  would  be  very  productive  if  we 
could  find  grasses  that  could  be  started  upon  them 
merely  by  scattering  the  seed.  There  are  many  wild 
grasses,  and  a  few  tame  ones,  adapted  to  such  soils. 
Some  of  these  wild  species  produce  excellent  feed,  and 
a  careful  study  should  be  made  of  them  with  a  view 
to  learning  how  to  propagate  them  by  seed. 

Where  land,  not  otherwise  inclined  to  be  wet,  is 
merely  overflowed  by  running  streams  for  a  period  of 
a  few  days  at  a  time,  it  is  usually  not  difficult  to  grow 
the  ordinary  grasses.  Even  alfalfa  thrives  under  these 
conditions.  But  where  the  land  is  covered  for  long 
periods,  and  particularly  where  stagnant  water  remains 
for  a  considerable  time,  the  problem  is  much  more 
serious.  Even  the  wild  swamp- grasses  will  not  stand 
prolonged  submergence  in  stagnant  water,  particularly 
in  warm  weather.  Many  grasses  will  grow  in  shallow 
water,  but  none  of  any  value  can  bear  continued  sub- 
mergence of  the  whole  plant.  Timothy  can  be  started 
on  moderately  wet  soils  merely  by  sowing  the  seed. 
On  soils  a  little  too  wet  for  timothy,  redtop  and 

FOWL-MEADOW  GRASS  (Poa  serotina)  can  be  started 
in  the  same  manner.  The  latter  grass  is  a  very  good 
one,  but  it  is  not  much  used,  so  that  seed  obtained 
in  the  markets  is  apt  to  be  old  or  otherwise  of  poor 
quality.  These  two  grasses,  mixed  with  alsike  clover, 


194      FARM    GRASSES    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES 

make  the  best  combination  for  wet  or  overflowed  lands 
of  any  grasses  whose  seed  can  be  had  in  the  markets  ; 
but  they  are  not  adapted  to  very  wet  lands,  such  as 
remain  muddy  throughout  the  season.  For  such  lands 
we  have  to  depend  at  present  on  the  chance  growth 
of  wild  grasses.  In  the  South  barn-yard  grass,  already 
mentioned  with  the  Japanese  millets,  grows  on  rather 
wet  lands.  Its  seed  is  easily  saved,  and  it  is  worth 
more  attention  than  it  has  heretofore  received  in  that 
sedlion,  particularly  on  lands  subject  to  June  over- 
flow. 

WILD  RICE  {Zizania  aquatica)  is  a  very  large,  suc- 
culent grass  that  grows  even  in  shallow  water,  and  fur- 
nishes excellent  green  feed  for  cattle  when  it  can  be 
harvested.  A  dairyman  near  Washington  city  annu- 
ally cuts  a  large  area  of  it  for  soiling  purposes,  and  re- 
ports it  to  be  excellent  feed.  Its  seed  furnishes  valu- 
able feed  for  fish  and  water-fowl.  A  few  dealers  offer 
seed  of  this  grass. 

LARGE  WATER-GRASS  (Paspalum  dilatatum)  is  said 
to  be  a  valuable  grass  on  wet  lands  in  the  South.  Its 
seed  has  recently  been  placed  on  the  market.  There 
are  numerous  other  grasses,  yielding  feed  of  fair  to 
good  quality,  growing  on  swampy  land  in  all  parts  of 
the  country,  but  those  mentioned  are  the  only  ones  of 
which  seed  is  available  at  the  present  time. 

SANDY   LANDS 

For  drifting  sands  only  one  grass  has  thus  far  been 
successfully  used — namely  : 

BEACH-GRASS  (Ammophila  arenaria). — This  is  the 
"Marram"    grass   of  Australia.      Extensive  planta- 


FIG.    42 — SEASIDE    BLUE-GRASS 


195 


196      FARM    GRASSES    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES 

tions  of  it  have  been  made  on  our  North  Atlantic 
Coast  and  in  Western  Europe.  It  also  thrives  in  the 
sands  on  the  shores  of  the  Great  Lakes.  It  is  propa- 
gated entirely  from  sets,  not  from  seed.  Of  cultivated 
grasses,  millet  is  adapted  to  rather  sandy  soils,  and 
rye  is  an  excellent  winter  crop  for  such  lands  ;  but 
these  two  crops  are  not  adapted  to  the  sandiest  soils. 
Canada  blue-grass  (Poa  compressa)  possesses  some 
advantages  as  a  pasture  or  lawn  grass  where  the  soil 
is  sandy. 

In  the  South  there  are  several  good  grasses  for  this 
purpose,  the  best  being  Bermuda  grass,  carpet-grass, 
and 

ST.  AUGUSTINE  GRASS  (Stenotaphrum  dimidea- 
tum). — All  three  of  these  are  propagated  from  cuttings 
or  pieces  of  sod.  St.  Augustine  grass  occurs  along  the 
Atlantic  Coast  from  Charleston,  S.  C.,  southward,  but 
does  not  extend  far  inland.  It  is  a  popular  lawn  grass 
in  that  section.  Numerous  grasses  are  found  growing 
on  more  or  less  sandy  land  in  the  West,  but  none  of 
them  have  found  their  way  into  the  markets. 

VELVET-GRASS  {Holcus  lanatus),  one  of  the  oldest 
domesticated  grasses  in  England,  is,  in  the  immediate 
vicinity  of  the  Pacific  Coast,  a  first-class  meadow  grass 
on  soils  that  consist  of  nearly  pure  sand.  It  is  dis- 
cussed in  a  previous  chapter. 

SEASIDE  BLUE-GRASS  (Poa  macrantha)  (Fig.  42)  is 
also  found  on  the  sands  at  the  mouth  of  the  Columbia 
River.  This  grass  may  be  worth  looking  after.  It 
produces  an  abundance  of  seed,  which  is  easily  har- 
vested. Whether  it  has  any  value  away  from  the  coast 
is  not  known. 


GRASSES    FOR    SPECIAL    CONDITIONS  197 

DRY   LANDS 

Some  of  the  cultivated  grasses  are  noted  for  drouth- 
resistance,  and  are  of  great  value  in  regions  of  com- 
paratively light  rainfall.  The  most  notable  of  these  is 
brome-grass.  In  the  South,  Johnson  grass  is  of  some 
value  as  a  drouth-resister,  as  is  also  Bermuda  grass. 
These  have. already  been  discussed.  There  are  many 
wild  grasses  that  thrive  in  regions  where  the  rainfall 
is  too  slight  for  farming,  and  several  million  acres  of 
such  grasses  are  annually  cut  for  hay  in  the  West.  An 
enumeration  of  them  would  be  out  of  place  in  a  treatise 
on  farm  grasses. 

ALKAU  SOILS 

All  soils  contain  more  or  less  soluble  mineral  mat- 
ter. Soil  consists  mostly  of  small  rock  particles  com- 
posed chiefly  of  quartz,  but  containing  small  quantities 
of  numerous  substances.  As  these  rock  particles  disin- 
tegrate under  the  aclion  of  moisture,  air.  heat,  and  cold, 
small  portions  of  soluble  substances  are  set  free  in  the 
soil.  In  humid  climates  these  substances  are  washed 
out  and  carried  off  by  streams  to  the  ocean.  This  is 
the  origin  of  the  saltness  of  sea-water.  This  process 
has  been  going  on  ever  since  rain  began  to  fall  on  the 
hot  crust  of  the  newly  formed  earth,  and  the  ocean  has 
thus  become  the  storehouse  of  vast  quantities  of  solu- 
ble material  formerly  constituting  part  of  the  rock  and 
soil  of  the  earth's  surface. 

In  arid  climates,  where  the  rainfall  is  insufficient  to 
saturate  the  soil  down  to  the  water-table  below,  and 
where  most  of  the  rain  that  falls  is  evaporated  from  the 


198      FARM    GRASSES    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES 

surface,  these  soluble  substances  collecl:  in  the  soil 
until  the  quantity  becomes  so  great  as  to  be  detrimental 
to  plant  life.  This  produces  alkali  soils.  Where 
these  salts  are  abundant  in  the  soil  they  tend  to  collect 
in  low  places,  where  most  of  the  evaporation  occurs. 
Irrigation  frequently  causes  alkali  to  rise  to  the  surface 
on  soils  where  plants  grew  readily  at  first,  but  which 
soon  became  too  salty  from  the  evaporation  of  the  salt- 
laden  water. 

Some  species  of  plants  have  become  adapted  by 
nature  to  these  strong  alkali  soils.  Among  cultivated 
crops  there  are  varying  degrees  of  resistance  to  alkali. 
Alfalfa  will  grow  on  rather  strongly  alkaline  soils. 
Australian  salt-bush  thrives  on  decidedly  strong  alkali. 
Neither  of  these  are,  however,  true  grasses.  None  of 
the  cultivated  grasses  is  decidedly  alkali  loving,  but 
several  wild  species  of  the  West  are  not  averse  to  it. 
The  most  useful  of  these  are  : 

GIANT  RYE-GRASS  {Elymus  condensatus) . — This 
grass  produces  an  abundance  of  good  seed  which  could 
easily  be  saved  if  a  demand  were  created  for  it.  It 
grows  in  the  wild  state  in  large  clumps,  but  when  the 
seed  is  sown  at  the  rate  of  25  or  30  Ibs.  per  acre  it 
makes  a  uniform  growth,  and  gives  a  large  yield  of 
coarse  but  palatable  hay.  The  hay  is  said,  by  those 
who  have  fed  it,  to  be  very  nutritious,  but  it  contains 
salts  enough  to  make  it  decidedly  laxative.  It  is, 
therefore,  better  adapted  for  cows  than  for  horses. 
Yet  some  farmers  who  have  grown  it  for  horse- 
feed  speak  highly  of  it.  It  deserves  attention  as  a 
hay  grass  on  soils  too  strongly  alkaline  for  alfalfa. 
(A  typical  view  on  ranges  of  the  West,  showing 


GRASSES    FOR    SPECIAL    CONDITIONS 


199 


Elymus   condensatus   in   low    alkaline  soil,  is  seen   in 

Fig.  43-) 

SALT- GRASS  (Distichlis  maritima},  a  small,  sod- 
forming  grass,  grows  on  soils  very  strongly  alkaline. 
Some  forms  of  it  grow  tall  enough  to  cut  for  hay.  It 


FIG.     43 — TYPICAL    VIEW     ON     RANGES     OF    THE    WEST 
SHOWING    BUNCHES    OF    GIANT    RYE    GRASS 

is  too  salty  for  first-class  feed,  but  stock  eat  it  very 
readily  when  better  feed  is  scarce.  No  attention  has 
been  given  to  its  propagation.  It  is  a  shy  seed-bearer, 
but  a  little  attention  from  the  plant-breeder  could 
doubtless  develop  a  strain  of  salt-grass  of  considerable 
value  for  soils  too  strongly  alkaline  for  other  grasses. 


XIV 


LAWNS  AND   LAWN-MAKING* 


and  well-kept  piece  of  greensward 
is  a  beautiful  and  pleasing  object,  restful  alike 
to  the  eye  and  body.    It  thus  has  both  aesthetic 
and  practical  value,  and  justifies  whatever  ex- 
penditure its  making  and  maintenance  entail. 

GRASSES  FOR  THE   LAWN 

In  selecting  the  grass  the  lawn-maker  will  be  lim- 
ited to  the  fine-leaved,  turf  -forming  species  suitea  to 
his  conditions  of  soil  and  climate.  Adaptability  is  of 
more  importance  than  color  or  texture,  though  these 
must  be  considered.  There  is  usually  more  than  one 
species  adapted  to  any  given  conditions.  The  United 
States  may  be  divided  into  three  general  sections,  be- 
tween which,  however,  no  definite  line  can  be  drawn. 

NORTHERN   STATES 

For  all  this  section,  extending  from  the  Atlantic 
to  the  Pacific,  with  minor  exceptions,  Kentucky  blue- 
grass  is  the  standard  for  lawn-making.  The  excep- 
tions are  the  Atlantic  Coast,  discussed  below,  and  parts 
of  the  Great  Plains  region  where  rainfall  is  somewhat 
deficient.  In  this  latter  region  buffalo-grass  and  Can- 
ada blue-grass  should  be  carefully  tried.  Over  most 
of  the  Northern  States  red  top  and  the  other  bent  grasses 

*  By  Carleton  R.  Ball,  United  States  Department  of  Agriculture. 
2OO 


LAWNS    AND    LAWN-MAKING  2OI 

can  also  be  used.  They  love  moist,  clayey,  or  loamy 
soils.  In  gravelly  or  sterile  soils  in  the  northern 
part,  Canada  blue-grass  outranks  its  better- known 
relative. 

ATLANTIC   COAST 

From  Maine  to  Maryland  and  Virginia  blue-grass 
does  not  thrive  near  the  coast.  The  slight  elevation, 
heavy  rainfall,  and  moist  clay  soils  do  not  seem  adapted 
to  its  best  development.  Redtop  and  the  bent  grasses 
are  here  at  their  best.  They  supersede  blue-grass  in 
lower  New  England  and  at  other  points  along  the  coast. 
Over  part  of  this  area  the  soil  is  normally  somewhat 
acid,  a  condition  apparently  not  harmful  to  species  of 
Agrostis.  At  Washington,  D.  C.,  redtop  is  being  used 
exclusively  in  new  seeding  on  the  Public  Grounds. 

SOUTHERN   STATES 

Bermuda  grass  is  the  standard  lawn  grass  in  most 
of  this  region.  It  has  all  the  characters  of  a  good  lawn 
grass  except  that  it  is  not  resistant  to  frost.  The  first 
heavy  frost  of  autumn  changes  it  from  a  beautiful 
green  to  a  light  brown  color,  and  thus  it  remains  until 
late  in  the  following  spring.  Scarifying  the  sward  with 
the  disk-harrow  in  the  fall  and  sowing  a  winter  grass, 
such  as  Italian  rye-grass,  has  been  recommended  and 
has  proved  successful  in  some  trials.  St.  lyucie  grass, 
a  variety  of  Bermuda,  and  St.  Augustine  grass,  a 
coarser,  creeping  species  of  the  Florida  coast,  are  also 
used.  Korean  lawn-grass  is  similar  to  St.  Augustine 
grass.  All  these  are  not  frost  resistant,  or  at  best  but 
little  more  so  than  Bermuda. 


202      FARM    GRASSES    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES 
DESCRIPTION   OF   GRASSES 

Bermuda  grass  {Cynodon  dactylon  (I*.)  Pers.).  By 
its  strongly  creeping  habit,  resistance  to  heat,  drouth, 
grazing,  and  trampling,  and  its  adaptability  to  both 
sandy  and  clayey  soil,  this  grass  is  of  the  greatest 
value  for  Southern  lawns.  The  objections  to  it  are 
that  the  foliage  is  not  resistant  to  frost,  though  the 
plant  does  not  winter-kill  below  the  latitude  of  Wash- 
ington and  St.  Louis.  It  is  also  hard  to  eradicate,  and 
spreads  readily  from  the  lawn  to  adjacent  fields  and 
gardens.  The  objection  to  its  being  non-resistant  to 
frost  is  in  part  overcome  by  sowing  a  winter  grass  with 
it  each  fall.  The  Bermuda  sod  is  cut  up  with  a  disk- 
harrow,  and  the  seed  sown  thereon.  Italian  rye-grass 
has  been  successfully  used  for  this  purpose.  Bermuda 
grass  can  be  started  either  from  seed  or  cuttings.  Eight 
to  ten  pounds  of  seed  will  be  sufficient  in  well-prepared 
soil.  The  cuttings  may  be  made  by  running  clean  turf 
through  a  fodder-cutter,  or  chopping  it  by  hand,  and 
planting  the  pieces  in  shallow  furrows  a  foot  or  so 
apart.  The  land  must  be  leveled  after  planting,  or  the 
use  of  the  lawn-mower  will  be  very  difficult. 

St.  Lucie  grass  is  a  variety  of  Bermuda  grass  which 
is  said  not  to  root  so  deeply  in  the  earth  and  to  be 
slightly  more  resistant  to  frost.  It  is  found  in  eastern 
Florida.  St.  Augustine  grass  {Stenofaphrum  dimidia- 
tum)  is  found  along  the  southern  Atlantic  Coast  from 
Maryland  southward.  In  habit  it  is  much  like  Ber- 
muda grass,  but  is  coarser,  with  broader  leaves,  and 
is  more  easily  eradicated.  It  has  been  used  for  lawns 
to  some  extent  in  the  Carolinas  and  Florida.  Korean 


LAWNS    AND    LAWN-MAKING  203 

lawn-grass  (  Osterdamia  matrella  (L,. )  Kuntze)  is  a  com- 
mon grass  of  the  Orient,  but  not  yet  obtainable  com- 
mercially. It  is  much  like  St.  Augustine  grass  in 
character.  Though  slightly  hardier  than  Bermuda,  it 
is  not  frost  resistant. 

Carpet-grass  (Paspalum  compressum  (Sw.)  Nees)  is 
a  low,  creeping  species,  resembling  Bermuda  in  habit, 
apparently  native  to  the  Gulf  Coast.  It  seems  to  thrive 
best  on  somewhat  sandy  lands  where  it  is  closely  grazed 
and  trampled.  It  flourishes  in  spite  of  heat  and  drouth, 
and  holds  washing  soils  well.  For  years  it  has  been 
gradually  extending  its  range  northward  in  the  Gulf 
States.  Though  the  seed  is  not  on  the  market,  this 
grass  should  be  tried  for  lawns  in  that  section.  Cut- 
tings can  be  used  for  starting  the  sward,  as  in  the  case 
of  Bermuda  grass.  It  is  much  more  resistant  to  frost 
than  that  species. 

Canada  blue-grass  (Poa  compressa  L,. )  is  of  lower 
and  more  wiry  growth  than  Kentucky  blue-grass  and 
also  darker  in  color.  Although  an  introduced  grass, 
it  is  now  found  quite  abundantly  in  the  States  about  the 
Great  Lakes.  On  rather  dry,  gravelly,  or  somewhat 
sterile  soils  it  is  more  successful  than  Kentuckv  blue- 
grass,  and  should  be  used  in  such  situations.  It  has 
given  good  results  in  parts  of  the  Plains  region  west  of 
the  Missouri  River,  where  rainfall  is  light. 

Fescues  {Festuca  spp.).  There  are  several  species 
or  varieties  of  the  fine-leaved  fescues,  which  are  of  con- 
siderable value  for  lawn-making  in  shaded  places  or 
'on  poor  or  gravelly  hillside  soils.  Among  them  are  : 
Festuca  australis,  hard  fescue  (T7!  duriuscula) ,  various- 
leaved  fescue  (/**.  heterophylla) ,  sheep's  fescue  (ovina), 


204      FARM    GRASSES    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES 

red  fescue  (/**.  rubra),  and  fine-leaved  fescue  (F.  tenui- 
folia).  Most  of  these,  except  red  fescue,  are  probably 
forms  of  sheep's  fescue.  Various-leaved  fescue  and 
hard  fescue  are  recommended  for  shady  lawns.  All 
have  fine,  needle-like  leaves,  which  need  but  little  cut- 
ting, as  their  growth  is  slow  and  they  reach  but  a  few 
inches  in  hight.  Most  of  them  are  bunchy  in  habit, 
and  must  be  sown  thickly  to  form  a  turf. 

Italian  rye-grass  (Lolium  italicum  L. ) .  This  is  not 
a  true  lawn  grass,  but  is  often  used  in  mixtures  because 
of  its  hardiness  and  very  rapid  growth,  which  enable  it 
to  quickly  cover  bare  ground  with  a  pleasing  coat  of 
green.  It  is  short-lived,  and  will  be  seen  but  little  after 
the  second  year. 

Kentucky  blue-grass  (Poa  pratensis  !,.)•  This  is 
the  king  of  lawn  grasses  for  the  greater  part  of  this 
country,  and  is  held  to  be  the  standard  of  color  and 
quality  of  turf.  From  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific,  ex- 
cept in  the  extreme  South,  it  is  successfully  grown  with 
uniform  and  pleasing  results.  To  the  low  moist  clays 
of  the  immediate  Atlantic  Coast  it  is  not  as  well  adapted 
as  redtop  or  creeping  bent,  and  at  lower  altitudes  than 
the  Piedmont  region  of  the  South  it  must  give  way  to 
Bermuda  grass  or  other  creeping  species.  Blue-grass 
does  not  reach  its  best  development  in  the  first  year 
from  seed,  but  gradually  produces  a  splendid  and  dur- 
able sward.  It  does  not  do  well  in  heavy  shade,  but  is 
suitable  for  parks  and  partly  shaded  areas.  It  is  not 
adapted  to  acid  soils,  but  prefers  those  of  limestone 
origin. 

Rough-stalked  meadow-grass  (Poa  trivialis  L,.)  and 
wood  meadow-grass  (Poa  nemoralis  I,.)  are  two  species 


LAWNS    AND    LAWN-MAKING  2O5 

closely  related  to  Kentucky  blue-grass.  The  latter 
closely  resembles  it,  but  the  former  is  a  lighter  green 
in  color,  and  the  leaves  are  more  shining.  Both  are 
adapted  to  use  in  shaded  situations  in  the  sections 
where  blue-grass  and  redtop  are  used.  They  can  also 
be  used  farther  south  because  protected  from  the  heat 
by  the  shade  under  which  they  grow. 

Redtop  (Agrostis  alba  L,. ) .  This  is  one  of  our  best- 
known  grasses,  and,  though  rather  coarse  in  foliage, 
lends  itself  well  to  lawn-making.  It  forms  a  close, 
durable  sward,  soft  in  texture  where  mowed  frequently 
to  induce  the  production  of  fine  foliage.  Neither  cold 
nor  heat  are  specially  injurious  to  it,  but  moist,  clayey 
soils  are  preferred.  In  the  region  of  I^akes  Erie  and 
Ontario  and  in  the  upper  Atlantic  Coast  redtop  is  largely 
used,  both  in  mixtures  and  alone.  It  forms  a  large 
percentage  in  practically  all  the  lawn-grass  mixtures 
sold  in  this  country,  and  on  the  whole  is  one  of  the 
best  grasses  for  the  purpose.  It  has  a  special  field 
in  the  moist  and  somewhat  acid  soils  of  the  lower 
New  England  States  and  the  northern  Atlantic  Coast, 
where  blue-grass  does  not  thrive. 

Two  similar  and  closely  related  species  are  creeping 
bent  (Agrostis  stolonifera)  and  Rhode  Island  bent  (A. 
canina).  The  former  is  regarded  as  a  variety  of  redtop, 
but  is  much  finer  in  habit  and  foliage,  and  produces  the 
softest  and  most  velvety  turf  of  any  grass  in  this  coun- 
try. Rhode  Island  bent  is  intermediate  in  habit  and 
texture  between  the  other  two.  All  are  adapted  to  the 
same  conditions  of  soil  and  climate.  Rhode  Island  bent 
is  largely  used  in  Rhode  Island  and  Connecticut, 
where  practically  all  the  seed  is  grown. 


206      FARM    GRASSES    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES 
MAKING  THE   LAWN 

The  greatest  of  care  is  necessary  in  preparing  the 
seed-bed.  The  ideal  condition  for  the  successful  grow- 
ing of  fine  lawn  grass  is  a  deep,  rich,  friable,  loamy 
soil.  Too  much  emphasis  can  not  be  laid  on  the  im- 
portance of  good  soil  and  thorough  preparation.  Deep 
plowing  of  larger  areas  and  deep  spading  or  trenching 
of  small  plats  is  required  to  a  depth  of  at  least  ten 
or  twelve  inches.  Where  the  fertile  surface  soil  is  but 
a  few  inches  in  depth  it  should  be  turned  so  as  to 
leave  the  good  soil  still  at  the  surface. 

While  the  plowing  or  spading  is  being  done  is  the  time 
to  enrich  the  land  for  years  of  future  productiveness. 
Well  rotted  barnyard  manure,  free  from  weeds  and  in 
good  condition  for  mixing  with  the  soil,  is  probably 
the  best  fertilizer  that  can  be  used.  It  is  often  difficult 
to  obtain  manure  of  this  quality.  Where  used  its  fer- 
tilizing effect  may  be  increased  and  prolonged  by  add- 
ing also  some  commercial  fertilizers.  In  preparing 
land  for  a  lawn,  matnure  may  profitably  be  applied  at 
the  rate  of  from  thirty  to  fifty  tons  per  acre.  It  is 
desirable  to  add  phosphoric  acid  and  potash  in  larger 
quantities  than  are  supplied  by  the  manure.  Using 
bone  meal  at  the  rate  of  from  three  hundred  to  six 
hundred  pounds  per  acre,  or  superphosphate  of  lime, 
commonly  called  acid  phosphate,  in  smaller  quantities, 
will  supply  the  needed  phosphoric  acid. 

Potash  may  be  had  in  the  form  of  wood  ashes,  which 
should  be  applied  at  the  rate  of  five  to  ten  tons  per  acre. 
Ashes  contain  also  much  lime,  which  is  helpful  to  the 
growth  of  clovers  and  most  of  the  grasses,  except  the 


LAWNS    AND    LAWN-MAKING  207 

bent  grasses.  Kainit  may  also  be  used  as  a  source  of 
potash.  These  fertilizers  must  be  thoroughly  worked 
into  the  soil  while  the  ground  is  being  prepared.  Seed 
should  not  be  sown  for  ten  days  or  more  after  the  appli- 
cation of  strong  commercial  fertilizers  in  large  quanti- 
ties, as  the  delicate  seedlings  are  apt  to  be  injured 
thereby. 

After  thorough  working  and  fertilizing,  the  sur- 
faces of  the  seed-bed  must  be  put  into  exceedingly  fine 
tilth  for  the  reception  of  the  seed.  This  is  accom- 
plished by  the  aid  of  the  acme  and  smoothing  harrows, 
or,  on  small  areas,  the  hand-rake  and  the  roller. 
No  effort  should  be  spared  to  bring  the  surface  to  the 
desired  tilth.  A  recent  invention,  the  disk  smoothing 
harrow,  has  proven  very  well  adapted  to  the  pur- 
pose. If  the  ground  has  been  very  deeply  worked  it 
may  be  well  to  let  it  settle  a  day  or  two  before  the 
final  preparation  of  the  surface. 

SEED   AND   SEEDING 

Only  the  best  quality  of  seed  should  be  used.  It 
may  cost  much  more  than  the  cheaper  grades,  but  is 
least  expensive  in  the  end.  Cheap  grades  contain 
large  quantities  of.  chaff  and  other  inert  matter,  as  well 
as  the  seeds  of  many  kinds  of  noxious  weeds.  By 
aclual  weight  weed  seeds  constitute  from  one  to  three 
per  cent,  of  the  average  lawn  grass-seed,  while  chaff 
makes  up  from  twenty  to  fifty  per  cent. ,  and  even  more. 
This  inert  matter  does  no  harm  when  sown,  but  is 
expensive  at  the  price  paid  for  it  as  seed. 

The  weight  per  bushel  of  the  commercial  grass- 
seeds  varies  with  their  quality.  The  standard  or  legal 


208      FARM    GRASSES    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES 

weight  of  blue-grass  and  redtop  has  been  14  Ibs.  in 
most  States.  This  standard  was  established  when  it 
was  impossible  to  clean  grass-seed.  Ordinary  grades 
are  now  quoted  at  from  14  to  20  Ibs. ,  and  fancy  or  extra 
fancy  seed  at  20  to  36  and  even  40  Ibs.  per  bushel. 
These  differences  are  due  almost  entirely  to  variations 
in  the  amount  of  chaff  present. 

The  most  important  f  adlors  aff  edling  the  rate  of  seed- 
ing of  lawn  grasses  are  the  quality  of  the  seed,  the  time 
of  year,  the  condition  of  the  soil,  and  the  purpose  for 
which  sown.  From  two  to  four  bushels  of  seed  are 
commonly  recommended.  Three  or  four  bushels  of 
good  seed,  weighing  at  least  25  Ibs.  to  the  bushel,  is 
the  proper  amount  to  sow.  Four  bushels  per  acre  is 
at  the  rate  of  four-fifths  of  a  quart  per  square  rod,  or 
one  quart  to  340  square  feet  of  surface,  which  equals 
an  area  17  by  20  feet.  By  weight  it  is  10  ounces  per 
square  rod,  or  one  pound  to  436  square  feet,  which 
equals  approximately  an  area  20  by  22  feet.  If  20 
Ibs.  to  the  bushel  is  taken  as  an  average  weight,  and 
the  seed  be  sown  at  the  rate  of  four  bushels  per  acre, 
it  requires  a  half  pound  per  square  rod,  or  one  pound 
on  500  square  feet  of  land,  which  is  an  area  20  by  25 
feet.  Quality  of  the  seed  as  regards  purity  and  vitality 
must,  after  all,  control  the  amount  sown.  Seed  con- 
taining much  chaff  and  of  low  germinating  power 
should  be  sown  at  the  rate  of  six  bushels  per  acre. 
Where  the  weight  is  30  to  35  Ibs.  per  bushel,  and  the 
percentage  of  germinable  seed  is  high,  the  amount 
need  not  be  over  three  bushels.  Intermediate  grades 
should  be  sown  in  proportion. 

In  late  spring  or  late  fall  sow  more  heavily  than  in 


LAWNS    AND    LAWN-MAKING  2OQ 

more  favorable  seasons.  Midsummer  sowings  should 
be  especially  heavy.  For  lawns,  sandy  soils  will  re- 
quire heavier  seeding  than  loamy  ones,  dry  soils  more 
than  moist  ones,  sterile  soils  more  than  fertile  ones, 
on  account  of  the  low  germination  under  these  con- 
ditions, and  rough  land  more  than  land  in  perfect  tilth. 
Areas  which  are  to  be  subject  to  rougher  and  more 
constant  usage  require  heavier  seeding  and  also  special 
kinds  of  grasses.  In  general,  small  plats  should  re- 
ceive proportionately  more  seed  than  larger  areas.  As 
a  rule,  heavy  seeding  will  be  well  repaid  in  all  lawn 
formation. 

The  seed  may  be  sown  either  by  hand  or  with  the 
grass-seeding  attachment  on  a  grain  drill,  or  with  a 
wheelbarrow  seeder.  If  the  area  is  large  the  use  of  a 
machine  is  decidedly  preferable.  The  wheelbarrow 
seeder,  though  run  by  hand-power,  will  sow  faster 
than  a  drill.  The  seed  is  also  likely  to  be  more  evenly 
distributed  with  the  machine  than  by  hand  unless  the 
sower  has  had  much  experience.  A  time  should  be 
chosen  when  but  little  air  is  stirring.  With  either 
hand  or  machine  seeding  it  is  best  to  go  over  the  land 
twice,  the  second  time  at  right  angles  to  the  first,  in 
order  to  avoid  leaving  unsown  spots.  White  clover- 
seed  may  be  mixed  with  the  grass-seed  before  sowing, 
and  if  a  mixture  of  grass-seeds  is  used  it  should  be 
made  by  thoroughly  mixing  the  seed  in  some  large 
vessel  and  all  the  kinds  sown  at  once. 

As  soon  as  sown  the  seed  should  be  immediately 
covered.  This  may  be  done  either  with  the  iron  rake 
or  the  roller,  or  both.  If  the  rake  is  used  it  must  be 
done  very  lightly,  as  small  grass-seeds  will  not  germi- 


210      FARM    GRASSES    OF    THE  "UNITED    STATES 

nate  if  covered  to  any  considerable  depth.  An  eighth 
of  an  inch  is  an  ideal  depth,  and  one- fourth  inch  as 
deep  as  is  at  all  safe.  The  careful  use  of  the  roller 
will  press  all  the  seed  into  the  soil,  and  at  the  same 
time  it  firms  the  surface  soil  in  a  very  helpful  way. 
On  small  plats  a  light  mulch  of  rotten  leaf  mold  or 
similar  substance  will  protect  from  birds  and  prevent 
the  drying  of  the  surface  soil.  If  it  is  necessary  to 
water  to  promote  germination  this  should  be  done 
with  great  care,  imitating  a  gentle  rain  as  much  as 
possible.  At  the  same  time  it  is  well  to  fully  soak 
the  ground,  so  that  no  more  water  may  be  neces- 
sary till  the  grass  is  well  up  and  out  of  danger  of 
injury. 

Grass-seeds  may  be  sown  at  almost  any  time  of  the 
year.  The  early  spring  and  early  fall  months  are  de- 
cidedly preferable,  however.  Most  of  our  lawn  grasses 
— at  least,  those  used  in  the  Northern  States — are 
adapted  to  cool  climates,  and  make  their  best  growth  in 
cool  weather.  Spring  sowing  should  be  done  as  early  as 
possible,  so  that  the  grass  may  become  firmly  established 
before  hot  weather  sets  in.  Fall  sowing  should  be  done 
in  the  latter  part  of  August  or  in  September.  Grasses 
started  then  will  be  well  set  before  winter.  Seeds  sown 
late  in  October  will  generally  not  germinate  that  fall, 
but  if  conditions  are  favorable  will  remain  in  the  ground 
over  winter  and  start  very  early  the  following  spring. 
Unless  a  quick  cover  crop  is  needed  to  prevent  washing 
of  the  land  or  for  the  green  appearance,  no  nurse  crop 
should  be  used  with  grass-seed.  Grasses  seldom  need 
any  protection,  and  are  often  injured  by  the  shading  and 
smothering  of  the  more  vigorous  nurse  crop. 


LAWNS    AND    LAWN-MAKING  211 

TURF   AND   TURFING 

Where  a  good  quality  of  turf  can  be  secured  it  is 
often  advisable  to  use  turf  in  covering  small  plats.  It 
should  be  cut  in  strips  ten  inches  or  more  in  width  and 
about  two  or  three  feet  long.  These  should  be  laid  on 
a  level  bed  of  good  soil,  and  carefully  packed  down 
and  the  joints  evenly  matched.  If,  on  drying,  cracks 
are  formed  between  the  sods,  these  must  be  filled  with 
pure  earth.  Seed  may  be  sown  in  them  if  desired. 
Freshly  laid  turf  must  be  kept  well  watered  while  the 
new  roots  are  starting  and  a  compact  sward  is  being 
formed.  Turfing  is  not  recommended,  however,  be- 
cause of  the  great  difficulty  of  securing  turf  of  desir- 
able grasses  free  from  weeds  and  weed-seeds. 

MOWING 

Much  of  the  beauty  and  health  of  a  grass  sward  will 
depend  on  frequent  and  regular  mowing  during  the 
growing  months.  Once  a  week  will  be  often  enough 
to  mow  the  average  lawn,  though  when  the  grass  is  in 
the  period  of  most  vigorous  growth  it  may  be  necessary 
to  mow  oftener.  Mowing  every  three  or  four  days  will 
not  injure  the  grass  in  any  way  if  a  short,  firm  sward 
is  desired.  Young  grass  may  be  allowed  to  reach  a 
hight  of  five  inches  before  being  mowed  at  all,  and  the 
work  should  then  be  done  with  a  scythe  rather  than  a 
lawn-mower.  During  hot  weather  the  grass  on  a  thin 
sward  should  not  be  mown  so  closely  as  to  permit  the 
drying  out  of  the  surface  and  inj  ury  to  the  grass  roots. 
Where  the  stand  is  thin  it  is  well  to  allow  the  cut  grass 
to  remain  on  the  ground,  especially  in  hot  weather, 


212      FARM    GRASSES    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES 

when  it  forms  a  very  useful  mulch.  In  general,  how- 
ever, it  should  be  removed  after  each  cutting.  At  the 
end  of  autumn  the  grass  should  be  allowed  to  grow 


FIG.  44 — GREENSWARD   IN  PUBLIC   GARDENS,    BOSTON,  MASS. 

(L,amson-Scribnerin  Year-book  of  United  States  Department  of 

Agriculture  for  1897.) 

taller  and  should  be  left  uncut,  so  that  it  may  hold  the 
snow  better  and  thus  be  protected  during  the  winter. 

Views  of  well-kept  lawns  are  presented  in  figures 
44  and  45. 

WATERING 

Lawns,  in  order  to  be  kept  fresh  and  green,  require 
ordinarily  a  great  deal  of  water.  While  water  must, 
therefore,  be  used  liberally,  it  must  be  applied  with 
care.  Sprinkling  should  be  done  either  in  the  early 


LAWNS    AND    LAWN-MAKING 


213 


morning  or  in  the  evening,  after  the  heat  of  the  day 
has  passed.  The  small  plats  of  turf  about  city  houses 
suffer  severely  from  being  watered  late  in  the  morning, 


FIG.    45 — LAWN-MOWERS,  OR   TURF-MAKERS,    IN  DRUID   HILL 

PARK,  BALTIMORE,  MD. 

(L,amson-Scribner  in  Year  book  of  United  States  Department  of 
Agriculture  for  1897.) 

and  the  wet  grass  then  subjected  to  the  full  heat  of  the 
summer  sun,  intensified  by  the  surrounding  walks  and 
buildings.  A  proper  sprinkling  nozzle  should  also  be 
used  on  the  hose.  When  this  is  not  done  the  turf  may 
be  greatly  injured.  Where  the  full  force  of  the  stream 
is  allowed  to  strike  directly  against  the  surface  of  a 
thin  sward,  the  soil  is  washed  slowly  from  the  roots 
of  the  grasses  and  they  are  thus  exposed  to  the  sun 


214      FARM    GRASSES    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES 

and  killed.  This  is  especially  true  on  terraces  and 
banks  where  the  earth  is  more  easily  disturbed,  and 
where  the  sun's  heat  falls  more  vertically  at  times. 
It  is  better  to  water  heavily,  soaking  the  ground 
to  a  depth  of  a  foot  or  two,  than  to  apply  water  in 
small  amounts  and  more  frequently.  On  all  but  the 
smallest  plats  a  sprinkler  of  the  fountain  or  revolving 
type  can  be  advantageously  used.  These  save  a  great 
deal  of  time  and  labor  in  applying  the  water,  but  care 
must  be  taken  that  corners  and  other  small  spaces  are 
not  left  without  .water. 

ROLLING 

Next  to  the  mower  the  roller  is  a  most  important 
implement.  It  should  be  used  in  early  spring  to  firm 
the  sward  after  the  heaving  of  the  soil  due  to  freezing 
and  thawing  in  winter.  After  heavy  rains  during 
summer  and  autumn,  and  on  young  swards  as  soon  as 
they  can  bear  it,  the  roller  should  be  used.  Those 
made  in  two  or  more  sections  are  preferred,  because 
they  turn  with  less  injury  to  the  soil  and  sward.  The 
most  good  will  be  done  by  the  roller  weighing  at  least 
fifteen  pounds  to  the  inch  of  length.  One  is  now  for 
sale  which  may  be  increased  in  weight  at  will  by  fill- 
ing a  hollow  compartment  with  sand  or  water. 

FERTILIZING   OR   TOP-DRESSING 

No  matter  how  thorough  the  preparation,  the  lawn 
will  eventually  demand  a  new  supply  of  food.  This 
must  be  given  in  the  form  of  natural  or  artificial  fer- 
tilizer. Well-rotted  barnyard  manure  is  unexcelled 
for  this  purpose.  It  may  be  applied  in  the  fall  and 


LAWNS    AND    LAWN-MAKING  215 

allowed  to  remain  through  the  winter,  raking  off  all 
straw  and  trash  remaining  in  the  spring  when  growth 
starts.  Or  it  may  be  applied  very  early  in  the  spring, 
j  ust  in  time  to  be  dissolved  and  carried  into  the  ground 
by  the  heavy  spring  rains.  In  either  case  nothing 
coarse  should  be  left  on  the  ground  when  the  grass 
begins  its  growth.  Commercial  fertilizers,  such  as 
ground  bone  or  bone  meal,  dried  blood,  and  nitrate  of 
soda,  may  also  be  used.  From  200  to  500  Ibs.  may  be 
used  at  a  single  time.  It  is  necessary  to  apply  them 
just  before  the  beginning  of  a  rain  or  to  wash  them 
into  the  soil  with  the  hose  wrhen  a  large  quantity  is 
used,  in  order  to  prevent  burning  the  grass.  They 
should  never  be  applied  to  the  grass  while  wet  from 
dew  or  rain,  as  the  grass  leaves  may  be  severely 
burned  by  the  chemical  ingredients,  unless  the  fer- 
tilizer is  quickly  washed  in  by  the  addition  of  more 
water.  Nitrate  of  soda  is  adapted  for  rapid  forcing 
of  the  grass,  and  the  effect  is  soon  spent.  The  others 
are  slower  and  more  lasting  in  their  action. 

WEEDING 

It  is  not  possible  to  do  more  than  mention  the  sub- 
ject of  weeding  here.  No  effort  should  be  spared  to 
keep  the  grass  free  from  weeds.  They  impair  the 
beaut}-  and  usefulness  of  the  sward,  and  even  threaten 
its  very  life  by  their  rapid  and  vigorous  growth.  An- 
nual weeds  should  be  kept  carefully  mowed  ;  if  no  seed 
are  allowed  to  ripen,  they  will  soon  disappear.  If  the}' 
spread  rapidly  and  smother  the  sward  as  does  crab- 
grass,  they  should  be  uprooted  if  possible.  Perennials, 
as  dandelion,  plantains,  and  similar  weeds  should  be 


21 6      FARM    GRASSES    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES 

carefully  dug  out  and  destroyed.  On  no  account  allow 
them  to  produce  and  scatter  their  seed.  A  few  drops 
of  some  strong  acid,  such  as  sulphuric  or  carbolic,  ap- 
plied to  the  cut  root  will  help  in  destroying  them. 
Places  left  bare  by  their  removal  should  be  raked  over 
and  resown  in  grass  to  prevent  other  weed  seeds  from 
finding  lodgment  there. 

RENOVATION 

Eternal  vigilance  is  the  price  of  a  perfect  sward. 
Wherever  a  break  occurs  in  the  turf  covering  it  should 
be  at  once  repaired.  An  iron  rake  will  prepare  the 
spot  for  seeding,  and  with  a  little  seed  and  a  gentle 
watering  the  new  growth  of  grass  may  be  started. 
The  seeding  of  such  spots  should  be  heavy,  for  the 
ground  can  rarely  be  more  than  scratched  with  the 
rake  instead  of  thoroughly  worked  up,  and  much  of 
the  seed  will  never  develop  sturdy  plants.  Thin  places 
in  the  turf  may  be  treated  in  the  same  manner  without 
danger  of  injury  to  the  grass  already  growing  ;  in  fact, 
it  is  often  perceptibly  benefited  by  such  treatment.  Its 
growth  helps  to  protect  the  new  grass  while  starting. 
Renovated  spots  should  be  fertilized  well  to  encourage 
rapid  growth.  Care  must  be  taken  that  the  same 
kind  of  seed  is  always  used,  or  the  result  will  be  a 
ragged  or  patchy  sward  of  very  unpleasing  appearance. 


XV 


MISCELLANY 


GRADES  OF  HAY 


HHE  grades  of  hay  adopted  by  the  National  Hay 
Association  in  1902  are  given  below.      These 
grades  have  been  adopted  by  the  Boards  of 
Trade  in  the  following  important  markets: 


Chicago,  111. 
St.  Louis,  Mo. 
Kansas  City,  Mo. 
Indianapolis,  Ind. 
Brooklyn,  N.  Y. 
St.  Paul,  Minn. 
Toledo,  O. 
Cincinnati,  O. 
Cleveland,  O. 
Baltimore,  Md. 


Columbus,  O. 
Louisville,  Ky. 
Philadelphia,  Pa. 
New  York,  N.  Y. 
Pittsburg,  Pa. 
Buffalo,  N.  Y. 
Washington,  D.  C. 
Richmond,  Va. 
New  Orleans,  La. 
Norfolk,  Va. 


They  are  also  adhered  to  in  practically  all  the 
smaller  centres  tributary  to  these  larger  cities. 

GRADES   OF   HAY   AND   STRAW 

Choice  Timothy  Hay. — Shall  be  timothy  not  mixed 
with  over  one-twentieth  other  grasses,  properly  cured, 
bright,  natural  color,  sound,  and  well  baled. 

No.  /,  Timothy  Hay. — Shall  be  timothy  not  more 
than  one-eigth  mixed  with  clover  or  other  tame  grasses, 
properly  cured,  good  color,  sound,  and  well  baled. 

»  217 


2l8      FARM    GRASSES    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES 

No.  2,  Timothy  Hay. — Shall  be  timothy  not  good 
enough  for  No.  i,  not  over  one-fourth  mixed  with 
clover  or  tame  grasses,  {air  color,  sound,  and  well 
baled. 

No.  j,  Timothy  Hay. — Shall  include  all  hay  not 
good  enough  for  other  grades,  sound,  and  well 
baled. 

No.  7,  Clover-mixed  Hay. — Shall  be  timothy  and 
clover  mixed,  with  at  least  one-half  timothy,  good 
color,  sound,  and  well  baled. 

No.  2,  Clover-mixed  Hay. — Shall  be  timothy  and 
clover  mixed,  with  at  least  one-third  timothy,  reason- 
ably sound,  and  well  baled. 

No.  i,  Clover  Hay. — Shall  be  medium  clover,  not 
over  one-twentieth  other  grasses,  properly  cured,  sound, 
and  well  baled. 

No.  2,  Clover  Hay. — Shall  be  clover,  sound,  well 
baled,  not  good  enough  for  No.  i . 

No  Grade  Hay. — Shall  include  all  hay  badly  cured, 
threshed,  badly  stained,  or  otherwise  unsound. 

Choice  Prairie  Hay. — Shall  be  upland  hay,  of  bright 
color,  well  cured,  sweet,  sound,  and  reasonably  free 
from  weeds. 

No.  i,  Prairie  Hay. — Shall  be  upland,  and  may  con- 
tain one-quarter  midland  of  good  color,  well  cured, 
sweet,  sound,  and  reasonably  free  from  weeds. 

No.  2,  Prairie  Hay.—  Shall  be  upland  of  fair  color, 
or  midland  of  good  color,  well  cured,  sweet,  sound,  and 
reasonably  free  from  weeds. 

No.  3,  Prairie  Hay. — Shall  be  midland  of  fair  color, 
or  slough  of  fair  color,  well  cured,  sound,  and  reason- 
ably free  from  weeds. 


MISCELLANY  2 19 

No.  4,  Prairie  Hay. — Shall  include  all  hay  not  good 
enough  for  other  grades,  and  not  caked. 

No  Grade  Prairie  Hay.  — Shall  include  all  hay  not 
good  enough  for  other  grades. 

STRAW 

No.  i,  Straight  Rye  Straw. — Shall  be  in  large  bales, 
clean,  bright,  long  rye  straw,  pressed  in  bundles,  sound, 
and  well  baled. 

No.  2,  Straight  Rye  Straw. — Shall  be  in  large  bales, 
long  rye  straw,  pressed  in  bundles,  sound,  and  well 
baled,  not  good  enough  for  No.  i. 

No.  i,  Tangled  Rye  Straw. — Shall  be  reasonably 
clean  rye  straw,  good  color,  sound,  and  well  baled. 

No.  2,  Tangled  Rye  Straw. — Shall  be  reasonably 
clean,  may  be  some  stained,  but  not  good  enough  for 
No.  i. 

No.  i,  Wheat  Straw. — Shall  be  reasonably  clean 
wheat  straw,  sound,  and  well  baled. 

No.  2,  Wheat  Straw. — Shall  be  reasonably  clean, 
may  be  some  stained,  but  not  good  enough  for  No.  i. 

No.  i,  Oat  Straw. — Shall  be  reasonably  clean  oat 
straw,  sound,  and  well  baled. 

No.  2,  Oat  Straw. — Shall  be  reasonably  clean,  may 
be  some  stained,  but  not  good  enough  for  No.  i. 

In  the  Mountain  States  and  on  the  Pacific  Coast 
several  other  grades  are  recognized  on  the  markets, 
the  principal  being  the  various  grades  of  alfalfa  and 
grain  hay.  The  latter  usually  consists  of  wheat,  or  a 
mixture  of  wheat  and  wild  oats.  Bluestem  has  a  sep- 
arate rating  in  a  few  localities.  It  is  interesting  to  note 


220      FARM    GRASSES    OF    THK    UNITED    STATES 

that  the  hay  which  ranks  highest  on  the  Denver  mar- 
kets, and  known  locally  as  South  Park  Hay,  is  neither 
a  grass  nor  a  legume,  but  a  sedge  {Juncus  balticus). 
It  grows  on  over-irrigated  meadows  in  South  Park, 
Colorado,  and  in  similar  situations  in  other  parts  of 
that  State  and  Wyoming.  Horses  prefer  it  to  any 
other  hay,  and  feeders  consider  it  the  acme  of  fine  hay 
for  driving-horses.  It  is  strictly  a  wild  hay,  cut  from 
volunteer  growth  on  meadows  that  are  irrigated  too 
heavily  to  permit  tame  grasses  to  grow. 

The  amount  of  low-grade  hay  that  reaches  the  mar- 
kets is  surprising  to  those  not  familiar  with  market 
conditions.  Leaving  meadows  down  till  they  become 
weed-infested  accounts  largely  for  this  cheap  hay. 
The  importance  of  renewing  meadows  before  they  be- 
come weedy  has  already  been  dwelt  on  at  some  length. 
An  incident  on  one  of  the  large  hay  markets,  recently 
witnessed  by  the  writer,  enforces  this  point.  A  com- 
mission merchant  had  that  morning  received  two  car- 
loads of  hay,  one  of  first-class  quality,  and  one  badly 
mixed  with  weeds  and  volunteer  grasses.  The  car  of 
good  hay  sold  immediately  at  a  good  price.  The  other 
car  was  passed  by  a  dozen  buyers,  and  finally  sold  for 
just  two-thirds  the  price  of  the  other.  There  were 
some  fifty  cars  of  low-grade  hay  on  the  same  market 
and  no  one  wanted  them,  but  there  was  a  string  of  buy- 
ers hunting  for  hay  of  good  quality. 

MEASURING   HAY   IN  THE   STACK 

I^ack  of  facilities  for  weighing  hay  on  many  farms 
renders  it  necessary  frequently  to  resort  to  measure- 
ments of  the  stack  as  the  only  means  of  getting  the 


MISCELLANY  221 

weight.  Frequent  inquiries  come  to  the  Department 
of  Agriculture  for  the  ' '  government  rule  ' '  for  ascer- 
taining the  weight  of  hay  from  measurements.  There 
is  no  such  rule  adopted  by  any  branch  of  the  govern- 
ment service,  so  far  as  the  writer  has  been  able  to 
learn.  So  far  as  known,  only  one  State  (New  Mexico) 
has  a  law  governing  the  case.  According  to  this  law 
the  number  of  cubic  feet  in  a  rick  is  determined  thus  : 
Multiply  the  width  by  the  over  ;  *  divide  the  product 
by  four,  and  multiply  the  quotient  by  the  length. 

This  rule  is  not  satisfactory.  It  is  fairly  accurate 
for  very  narrow-topped  ricks  that  are  about  three- 
quarters  as  high  as  wide  ;  but  for  tall  ricks,  with  well- 
rounded  tops,  it  gives  results  nearly  30  per  cent,  too 
low.  Another  rule,  recently  published  in  a  Western 
farm  paper,  is  as  follows  :  Subtract  the  width  from 
the  over  ;  divide  by  two,  and  multiply  by  the  width 
and  then  by  the  length.  This  rule  is  fairly  accurate 
for  tall  ricks  (as  tall  as  wide  or  taller)  with  narrow  to 
very  narrow  tops ;  but  for  low,  rounded  ricks  it  gives  re- 
sults about  1 5  per  cent,  too  low.  The  writer  has  devised 
the  following  rule,  which  gives  very  accurate  results 
for  ricks  of  any  form.  The  greatest  error  is  in  the 
case  of  ricks  one- quarter  taller  than  wide,  or  more,  and 
very  narrow  at  top.  Even  for  ricks  of  this  shape  the 
error  is  less  than  5  per  cent. 

RULE   FOR   MEASURING   RICKS 

Subtract  the  width  from  the  over  ;  divide  by  the 
hight ;  then  multiply  successively  by  the  over,  the 
width,  the  length,  and  by  .225. 

*  The  "over"  is  the  distance  from  the  ground  on  one  side  over  the  rick 
to  the  ground  on  the  other  side. 


222      FARM    GRASSES    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES 

The  results  obtained  by  applying  all  these  rules  to 
two  ricks  of  different  form  are  given  below. 


Rick  A 

Rick  B 

Hight  (ft.)     

Q.O 

12.  0 

Width  (ft.)     

V-  w 
12.  0 

12.  1 

Over  (ft.)       .     

23.88 

28.2 

Volume  —  true  (cubic  ft.)     .... 

*•  jm  *-" 
2,  ZIA.  4. 

o.oSd.o 

Volume  —  First  rule  (cubic  ft.) 

—  '  J  J^T'  *T 
.            2,149.2 

J  »vy<jt|..v^ 

2,559-1 

Volume  —  Second  rule  (cubic  ft.) 

.            2,138.4 

2,922.1 

Volume  —  Third  rule  (cubic  ft.)   .     .     , 

•     2,553-0 

3,087.0 

PER   CENT.    OF   ERROR 

First  rule 14.0  17.0 

Second  rule 15.6  5.2 

Third  rule .7  .1 

These  two  ricks  were  measured  with  the  utmost 
care.  It  will  be  noticed  that  A  is  three-quarters  as 
tall  as  wide  ;  it  was  also  quite  round.  B  is  as  tall  as 
wide,  and  narrow  topped — a  very  common  form.  The 
rule  last  given  is  seen  to  give  very  accurate  results  in 
both  cases,  while  the  other  two  give  values  much  too 
small.  In  both  cases  the  New  Mexico  rule  gives  large 
errors,  the  error  being  in  favor  of  the  buyer.  The 
second  rule  gives  a  value  much  too  small  in  the  case 
of  the  low,  round  rick,  but  is  more  nearly  corect  for 
the  tall,  sharp-topped  one. 

No  satisfactory  rule  for  finding  the  volume  of  a 
round  stack  has  yet  been  published,  and  the  writer  has 
not  had  time  to  develop  one  in  his  own  investigations. 
The  volume  of  such  a  stack  may  be  found  in  the  fol- 
lowing manner,  which,  however,  is  too  tedious  to  be 
practicable:  Measure  the  circumference  of  the  stack  at 
each  foot  of  its  hight.  Square  each  of  the  numbers 


MISCELLANY  223 

thus  obtained,  add  the  squares  together,  and  divide  by 
12.5. 

NUMBER  OF  CUBIC  FEET  PER  TON 

So  far  as  the  writer  is  able  to  ascertain,  the  num- 
ber of  cubic  feet  of  hay  in  a  ton  has  been  investigated 
very  little.  He  is  now  measuring  the  volume  of  a 
large  number  of  ricks,  stacks,  and  mows,  the  hay 
from  which  is  to  be  baled.  It  is  hoped  that  these  data 
may  furnish  a  basis  for  determining  the  volume  of  a 
ton  of  hay  with  some  degree  of  accuracy.  Until  the 
weight  corresponding  to  the  volumes  measured  are 
known,  no  reliable  figures  can  be  given.  The  prob- 
lem is  so  complex  that  no  such  satisfactory  rule  for 
estimating  the  number  of  cubic  feet  in  a  ton  may  be 
found  as  is  given  above  for  finding  the  volume  of  a 
rick  of  hay. 

The  volume  of  a  ton  of  hay  depends  on  several 
factors.  A  stack  that  has  stood  four  months  is  much 
denser  than  one  freshly  built.  Hence  the  length  of 
time  a  stack  has  stood  determines,  to  some  extent,  the 
number  of  cubic  feet  in  a  ton  of  the  hay.  Also  a  tall 
stack  settles  more  than  a  low  one.  The  kind  of  hay 
also  has  much  to  do  with  it.  Clover  hay  is  lighter 
than  timothy,  volume  for  volume,  and  hay  with  stiff 
weed  stems  in  it  does  not  settle  down  as  compactly  as 
hay  with  no  weeds  in  it.  It  is  common  to  consider 
512  cubic  feet  (an  8-foot  cube)  as  a  ton  in  hay  stacked 
only  a  few  days,  while  350  to  380  cubic  feet  of  hay 
that  has  stood  two  months  or  more  will  usually  make 
a  ton.  In  developing  rules  for  estimating  the  number 
of  cubic  feet  in  a  ton  of  hay,  the  points  to  be  deter- 
wined  are  ( i )  the  rate  at  which  hay  settles  after  stack- 


224      FARM    GRASSES    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES 

ing  ;  (2)  the  relation  of  the  hight  of  the  stack  to  the 
rate  of  settling;  (3)  the  influence  of  the  kind  of  hay 
and  its  condition  as  to  dryness  when  stacked  on  the 
number  of  cubic  feet  in  a  ton.  Whether  the  results  will 
be  of  much  value  will  depend  on  whether  the  influence 
of  these  various  fadlors  can  be  reduced  to  rule.  For 
the  present  the  figures  for  the  number  of  cubic  feet  in 
a  ton  given  in  the  New  Mexico  law  may  be  used  pro- 
visionally, unless  more  accurate  ones  are  known. 
They  are:  512  cubic  feet  for  the  first  twenty  da}^s, 
422  from  the  twentieth  to  the  sixtieth  day,  and  380 
thereafter. 

SEED    HABITS 

The  amount  of  seed  which  can  be  harvested  de- 
pends largely  on  the  seed  habits  of  the  plant.  Many 
otherwise  excellent  grasses  are  rendered  useless  by 
yielding  very  little  seed,  or  seed  which  lacks  vitality,  or 
falls  out  too  soon  when  ripe  to  be  easily  harvested.  No 
grass  excels  timothy  in  good  seed  habits.  In  the 
amount  of  seed  produced  and  the  ease  with  which  it  is 
saved  and  cleaned,  timothy  has  no  rival  among  the 
true  grasses.  This  fadl  probably  accounts,  in  large 
measure,  for  the  popularity  of  this  grass  with  American 
farmers.  Not  that  it  yields  so  many  more  pounds  of 
seed  per  acre  than  other  grasses,  but,  its  seed  being 
small,  an  acre  of  timothy  will  produce  seed  enough  to 
sow  a  larger  area  than  is  the  case  with  any  other  grass 
grown  in  this  country.  An  example  of  poor  seed 
habits,  and  the  resulting  uselessness  of  a  grass,  is  seen 
in  reed  canary-grass  (Phalaris  arundinacea) .  It  grows 
wild  over  nearly  all  the  northern  half  of  this  country, 


MISCELLANY  225 

and  is  greedily  eaten  by  all  classes  of  stock.  Yet  reed 
canary-grass  is  practically  unknown  to  American  farm- 
ers because  of  its  exceedingly  poor  seed  habits.  Its 
seed  falls  almost  the  moment  it  is  mature,  and  it  is 
very  difficult  to  get  a  stand  from  apparently  good  seed. 
Certain  strains  of  this  grass,  however,  hold  the  seed 
fairly  well,  and  there  is  an  opportunity  for  the  plant 
breeder  to  add  a  valuable  grass  to  the  limited  list  of 
good  American  farm  grasses  by  producing  a  strain  of 
reed  canary-grass  with  good  seed  habits. 

Bermuda  grass,  the  best  pasture-grass  in  the  South, 
and  one  of  the  best  in  the  world,  as  stated  elsewhere  in 
this  volume,  does  not  produce  seed  in  this  country,  ex- 
cept in  parts  of  Florida,  Arizona,  and  Southern  Cali- 
fornia. In  one  respect  this  is  an  important  advantage, 
because  Bermuda,  like  Johnson  grass,  is  very  tenacious 
of  life,  and,  when  once  established,  is  decidedly  diffi- 
cult to  eradicate,  unless  one  thoroughly  knows  how  to  go 
about  it.  It  is,  perhaps,  fortunate  under  the  circum- 
stances that  it  has  such  poor  seed  habits.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  seed  is  small  and  lacking  in  vitality, 
so  that  even  when  the  seed  is  available,  it  is  seldom 
possible  to  get  a  perfect  stand  from  it,  and  it  is,  there- 
fore, usually  propagated  from  pieces  of  sod. 

Some  grasses  propagate  so  readily  from  the  seed  as 
to  render  them  a  menace  to  the  farmer.  Crab-grass 
and  Johnson  grass  belong  to  this  class.  If  Johnson 
grass  had  the  seed  habits  of  Bermuda  grass,  it  would 
not  be  the  great  pest  it  is,  for,  although  its  root-stocks 
are  very  tenacious  of  life,  it  spreads  mostly  from  the 
seed.  Most  of  our  otherwise  valuable  wild  grasses  are 
not  adapted  to  cultivation  because  of  poor  seed  habits. 


226      FARM    GRASSES    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES 
IMPROVING    THE    GRASSES 

When  we  consider  that  the  present  improved  and 
highly  specialized  breeds  of  live  stock  have  nearly  all 
been  produced  within  the  past  century  and  a  half  from 
stock  no  better  than  the  veriest  scrubs  that  now  roam 
the  woods  in  sections  where  no  effort  to  improve  them 
has  been  made,  and  especially  when  by  far  the  larger 
part  of  the  improvement  of  any  one  breed  has  been 
made  by  a  very  few  men  working  without  the  knowl- 
edge of  any  laws  of  breeding  to  aid  them,  it  is  not  sur- 
prising that  similar  efforts  should  be  made  to  improve 
the  character  of  farm  crops.  Indeed,  it  is  rather  sur- 
prising that  the  effort  did  not  become  general  long 
ago.  But  there  are  special  difficulties  in  the  way  of 
improving  crops  that  do  not  exist  in  the  case  of  live 
stock.  Improvement  of  animals  has  been  brought 
about  by  dealing  with  them  as  individuals.  On  ac- 
count of  the  small  size  of  individual  plants,  particularly 
the  grasses,  it  is  a  tedious  task  to  study  individuals. 
Most  of  the  improvement  of  animals  has  been  brought 
about  mainly  by  eliminating  inferior  members  of  the 
breeding  herd.  A  few  stockmen  of  signal  ability  have 
followed  another  course.  They  have  become  so  thor- 
oughly familiar  with  animal  form  and  charadler  that 
they  have  been  able  to  create  for  themselves  mental 
pictures  of  ideally  perfect  animals,  and  they  have 
searched  through  a  whole  breed  for  individuals  ap- 
proaching this  ideal.  When  such  an  individual  is 
found  it  is  acquired  at  any  cost,  and  herds  of  these 
nearly  ideal  animals  have  been  built  up.  The  most 
rapid  progress  in  the  improvement  of  breeds  generally 
is  traceable  to  these  few  herds. 


MISCELLANY  227 

It  is  only  recently  that  a  similar  effort  has  been 
made  to  improve  field  crops.  In  most  cases  the  work 
of  breeding  plants  requires  more  technical  knowledge 
than  most  men  possess.  It  is  tedious  work  at  best, 
and  requires  much  training  and  skill  to  cross-pollinate 
the  ordinary  field  crops  or,  to  select  out  the  best  plants 
in  a  field,  or  even  in  a  small  plat.  It  is  natural  that 
most  progress  should  have  been  made  with  corn,  for 
here  the  individual  plants  are  of  considerable  size.  As 
soon  as  farmers  and  plant  breeders  began  to  study  the 
corn  plant  with  a  view  to  producing  superior  strains  of 
the  various  varieties,  marked  improvements  in  seed 
corn  began  to  be  made.  There  are  now  many  farmers 
who,  by  the  aid  received  from  careful  students  of  the 
subject  in  our  agricultural  colleges,  produce  annually 
large  quantities  of  pedigreed  corn  of  a  quality  much 
superior  in  every  way  to  the  common  corn  varieties  of 
the  country.  One  breeder,  who  last  year  produced 
and  sold  25,000  bushels  of  highly  improved  seed  corn, 
estimates  that  those  who  planted  this  seed  secured 
an  average  increase  of  eight  to  ten  bushels  per  acre 
over  seed  of  unimproved  varieties.  This  estimate  is 
based  on  reports  furnished  by  farmers  who  used  this 
seed.  It  should  be  remembered  that  this  improve- 
ment has  been  brought  about  in  a  few  years.  When 
it  has  been  in  progress  as  long  as  has  the  improve- 
ment of  live  stock,  we  shall  doubtless  have  breeds  of 
corn  as  much  superior  to  the  common  kinds  as  the 
present  2,ooo-pound  bullock  is  to  the  5oo-pound 
Smithfield  show  animal  of  a  little  more  than  a  century 
ago. 

Wheat  has  received  considerable  attention  from  the 


228      FARM    GRASSES    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES 

plant  breeder  in  recent  years.  Breeders  have  pursued 
two  distinct  courses  with  this  crop.  One  set  of  breed- 
ers has  been  producing  new  varieties  by  crossing  old 
ones.  Thus  far  there  has  not  been  a  great  deal  accom- 
plished in  this  direction.  It  is  only  about  three  years 
since  we  first  learned  how  to  handle  the  apparently 
variable  progeny  of  such  a  cross.  A  few  varities  have 
been  produced  that  possess  special  qualities  of  more  or 
less  value.  Now  that  we  know  how  to  get  all  the  pos- 
sible new  varieties  out  of  a  cross,  and  can  even  tell  in 
advance  what  most  of  these  varieties  will  be  like,  much 
more  ought  to  be  accomplished  in  this  line  of  plant 
improvement. 

The  other  line  of  work  with  wheat  has  consisted  in 
a  careful  study  of  a  large  number  of  individual  plants 
in  order  to  be  able  to  save  seed  from  the  best.  Prof. 
W.  M.  Hayes,  of  the  Minnesota  station,  has  done  some 
excellent  work  of  this  kind,  and  has  produced  pedi- 
greed strains  of  some  of  the  standard  varieties  of  that 
section  that  considerably  outyield  the  original  varieties. 

Very  little  work  of  this  kind  has  been  undertaken 
with  the  standard  hay  and  pasture  grasses,  but  enough 
has  been  done  to  show  valuable  results.  It  has  been 
shown  that,  in  the  crops  that  have  been  carefully 
studied,  each  kind  of  grass,  as  ordinarily  sown  by  the 
farmer,  consists  in  reality  of  a  number  of  more  or  less 
distinct  varieties  mixed  together.  With  the  usual 
methods  of  securing  grass-seed  there  is  no  opportunity 
to  separate  these  varieties.  In  order  to  accomplish 
this,  a  careful  study  of  the  crop  must  be  made  until 
the  grower  is  able  to  recognize  the  varieties  of  which 
it  consists.  This  has.  been  done  in  a  few  cases. 


MISCELLANY  229 

Dr.  A.  D.  Hopkins,  at  present  connected  with  the 
Bureau  of  Entomology  of  the  Department  of  Agricul- 
ture, but  formerly  of  the  West  Virginia  Experiment 
Station,  for  many  years  grew  timothy  for  seed.  For 
this  purpose  the  crop  is  ordinarily  sown  thinly,  so  that, 
during  the  first  harvest  year,  the  plants  are  sufficiently 
distinct  to  permit  of  the  observation  of  individual 
plants.  Many  years'  close  observation  showed  that 
the  crop  consists  of  a  large  number  of  constantly  re- 
curring forms  quite  easily  distinguished.  A  number 
of  plants,  each  representing  one  of  these  forms,  were 
taken  up  and  separated  into  as  many  parts  as  the 
nature  of  the  case  permitted ;  in  this  way  each  plant 
became  the  parent,  by  division,  of  a  large  number  of 
plants,  all  set  side  by  side  in  a  plat.  When  seed  was 
harvested  from  these  plats  it  was  found  that  the 
plants  produced  from  these  seeds  reproduced  faithfully 
the  characters  of  the  original  selection.  Each  original 
selection,  therefore,  became  the  parent  of  a  variety. 
Several  of  these  varieties  are  now  growing  in  the  grass- 
garden  of  the  Department  of  Agriculture,  where  they 
have  been  the  object  of  careful  observation.  They 
differ  markedly  in  character  of  growth,  earliness,  size, 
etc.  Some  of  them  are  evidently  far  superior  to  the 
ordinary  timothy  as  grown  by  farmers  (which  is  a 
mixture  of  superior  and  inferior  varieties),  some  for 
seed  production,  others  as  hay  plants,  and  others  as 
pasture  plants.  (Some  of  Dr.  Hopkin's  varieties  of 
timothy  exhibited  at  the  Paris  Exposition  are  shown 
in  Figs.  46  and  47.) 

In  a  manner  exactly  similar,  Mr.  A.  B.  Leckenby, 
Diredlor  of  the  Eastern  Oregon  Experiment  Station, 


H    < 

§- 


5  0 


•Wife. 


232      FARM    GRASSES    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES 

has  isolated  twenty-two  varieties  of  brome-grass 
(Bromus  inermis  Leyss.)  as  distinct,  for  instance,  in 
their  agricultural  characters,  as  the  ordinary  varieties 
of  wheat  (see  Fig.  48).  He  has  also  isolated  a  larger 
number  of  varieties  of  blue-grass  (Poa  pratensis) ,  dif- 
fering to  a  remarkable  degree  in  character  of  growth, 
and,  consequently,  in  agricultural  value. 

It  is  probable  that  all  the  standard  grasses  can  like- 
wise be  separated  into  varieties,  some  of  which  would 
be  a  marked  improvement  over  these  grasses  as  ordi- 
narily grown.  Much  work  of  this  character  is  now  in 
progress,  and  it  will  be  only  a  few  years  till  farmers 
may  be  supplied  with  improved  varieties  of  most  of 
the  important  grass  crops. 

GRASS   FADS 

A  word  of  caution  to  farmers  concerning  much- 
advertised  new  grasses  may  not  be  out  of  place,  though, 
unfortunately,  those  who  most  need  this  caution  will 
never  see  these  pages.  Every  few  years  some  enter- 
prising seedsman  discovers  a  new  forage  plant  that,  to 
quote  from  the  seedsman's  catalogue,  "  produces 
eighty  tons  of  green  feed  per  acre,  is  indestructible 
both  by  fire  and  water,  and  furnishes  shade  in  summer 
and  shelter  against  the  storms  of  winter. ' '  Unfortu- 
nately, thousands  of  farmers  have  spent  their  hard- 
earned  dollars  for  these  much-advertised  seeds  at  prices 
that  amaze  those  who  are  familiar  with  their  actual 
market  value,  only  to  learn  that  they  are  worthless 
weeds,  or  some  old  and  well-known  forage  plant  that 
is  masquerading  under  a  new  name. 

The  two  most  prominent  fads  of  this  kind  in  recent 


234      FARM    GRASSES    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES 

years  were  sachaline,  a  well-nigh  worthless  representa- 
tive of  the  smartweed  family,  and  penicillaria  (Fig.  49), 
which  proved  to  be  only  pearl  millet  under  another  name. 
Many  other  instances  might  be  mentioned.  These 
new  crops  soon  find  their  place  in  agriculture.  Some 
of  them  have  turned  out  to  have  considerable  value  in 
certain  sections  of  the  country.  Brome- grass  {Bromus 
inermis)  is  a  case  in  point.  This  grass  began  to  be 
widely  advertised  about  ten  years  ago  in  this  country. 
It  has  turned  out  to  be  a  valuable  pasture  grass  in  the 
Prairie  States,  and  may  in  time  win  a  place  in  all  the 
Northern  States,  but  it  is  absolutely  worthless  south 
of  Missouri  and  Kentucky.  For  several  years  past 
Turkestan  alfalfa  has  been  the  most  prominent  fad 
with  farmers.  It  has  not  yet  found  its  place  in  Amer- 
ican agriculture,  but  will  undoubtedly  do  so  in  the 
near  future,  for  the  State  experiment  stations  and  the 
Department  of  Agriculture  are  giving  it  a  thorough 
trial  all  over  the  country. 

Farmers  will  find  it  to  their  advantage  to  wait  till 
these  trials  are  finished.  Experiments  are  costly. 
Individual  farmers  can  usually  avoid  such  expense  by 
leaving  this  work  to  those  whose  business  it  is  to  con- 
duct experiments.  Exorbitant  claims  for  any  new 
crop  should  be  viewed  with  suspicion.  Much  useless 
expense  would  be  saved  to  farmers  by  writing  to  the 
better  class  of  agricultural  journals,  the  experiment 
stations,  and  the  National  Department  of  Agriculture 
for  information  concerning  any  new  and  much-adver- 
tised crop,  for  these  authorities  are  usually  in  posses- 
sion of  all  the  reliable  information  to  be  had  concerning 
such  things. 


FIG.    49 — PENICILLARIA,    OR   PEARL   MILLET 


235 


236        FARM    GRASSES    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES 
THE   GRASS   FLOWER 

The  seed-head  of  the  true  grasses  is  of  two  general 
patterns.  One  is  seen  in  the  head  of  wheat,  barley, 
timothy,  etc.  This  form  of  seed-head  is  called  a  spike 
(see  Fig.  50).  Examination  of  ahead  of  wheat  shows 
that  it  consists  of  a  number  of  "  meshes  "  arranged  in 
two  rows  on  opposite  sides  of  a  central  stem.  These 
meshes  consist  of  from  three  to  five  flowers  each, 
arranged  in  a  compact  cluster  called  a  spikelet  (Fig. 
51).  In  the  timothy  head  the  spikelets  are  not 
arranged  in  two  opposite  rows,  but  are  scattered  over 
an  enlarged  continuation  of  the  stem. 

A  very  different  pattern  of  seed-head  is  found  in 
oats,  Kentucky  blue-grass,  and  the  like.  The  flowers 
of  these  are  grouped  in  spikelets,  but  the  spikelets  are 
not  arranged  on  a  single  stem.  They  are  found  at  the 
tips  of  the  many  branches  of  the  stem.  This  much- 
branched  form  of  seed-head  is  called  a  panicle  (Fig.  52). 

Let  us  now  examine  more  closely  one  of  the  small 
spikelets  found  at  the  tip  of  a  branch  of  a  blue-grass 
panicle.  Fig.  51  shows  one  of  these  spikelets  very 
much  enlarged.  Apparently  it  consists  of  seven  parts 
very  much  alike.  In  reality  the  two  lower  divisions 
are  merely  two  empty  chaff-like  leaves.  The  remain- 
ing five  parts  are  complete  flowers,  having  enclosed 
within  each  the  organs  that  are  seen  in  the  expanded 
flower  shown  in  Fig.  53.  The  names  of  these  parts  of 
a  spikelet  are  shown  in  Fig.  51.  The  flowers  of  the 
true  grasses  are  called  florets. 

The  parts  of  a  single  floret  are  well  shown  in  Fig. 
53.  First,  there  is  the  leaf-like  floral  glume,  very  much 
like  the  empty  glume  at  the  base  of  the  spikelet. 


FIG.   50— A    SPIKE  FIG.   $1— A  SPIKELET 


238      FARM    GRASSES    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES 

Next  is  the  palet,  which  is  another  leaf-like  organ, 
usually  having  two  ridges  on  the  back,  with  a  furrow 
between  them,  thus  adapting  it  to  fit  snugly  against 
the  floret  next  above  it  in  the  spikelet.  The  empty 
glumes,  the  floral  glumes,  and  the  palets  constitute 
the  ' '  chaff. ' '  In  reading  what  follows  it  is  well  to 
refer  frequently  to  Fig.  53,  otherwise  this  description 
will  be  meaningless  to  those  not  familiar  with  the  study 
of  botany.  The  ovary  is  the  part  that  afterward 
develops  into  the  grain  or  seed.  But  no  seed  could  i>e 
formed  were  it  not  for  the  anthers. 

It  will  be  seen  in  the  figure  that  at  the  top  of  the 
ovary  there  are  two  large  feather-like  projections. 
These  are  the  styles.  Over  a  portion  of  the  surface  of 
the  style  the  skin  is  missing,  the  bare  flesh  of  the 
style  being  exposed  to  the  air.  This  bare  area  is 
called  the  stigma.  At  a  certain  stage  in  the  develop- 
ment of  the  flower  the  stigma  is  covered  with  a 
gummy  substance  which  is  of  great  importance  in  the 
economy  of  the  flower. 

L,et  us  now  turn  to  the  anthers,  of  which  the  blue- 
grass  flower  has  three.  When  ripe  these  anthers  are 
filled  with  exceedingly  small,  round,  yellowish  bodies 
called  pollen  grains.  About  the  time  the  gummy  sub- 
stance appears  on  the  stigma  the  anthers  burst  and  a 
shower  of  pollen  falls.  When  one  of  the  pollen  grains 
strikes  on  the  stigma  it  sticks  there.  (See/,  Fig.  54). 
This  gum  seems  to  act  as  a  sort  of  stimulus  to  the  pol- 
len grain,  for  the  grain  soon  sends  out  a  slender  rootlet 
(pollen  tube,  pt.  Fig.  54,)  which  grows  down  into 
the  flesh  of  the  stigma  much  the  same  as  a  root  grows 
down  into  the  soil.  Now  there  is  down  in  the  ovary  a 


FIG.   52 — A    PANICLE 


240      FARM    GRASSES    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES 

little  body  which  is  in  many  respedts  a  counterpart  of 
a  pollen  grain,  and  which  is  called  an  ovule  (ey  Fig.  54) . 
The  rootlet  from  the  pollen  grain  continues  to 
grow  down  through  the  substance  of  the  stigma  and 
the  ovary  until  it  finds  the  ovule.  It  seems  to  be 
guided  in  some  unknown  way  to  the  very  point  where 
the  ovule  is  found.  As  soon  as  the  rootlet  (pollen 
tube)  touches  the  ovule,  some  small  particles  of  living 
matter  in  the  tube  (r,  Fig.  54,)  pass  through  he  wall 
of  the  tube  and  enter  the  ovule.  What  occurs  then  in 
the  ovule  would  take  many  pages  to  tell.  Suffice  it  to 
say  that  one  of  the  living  particles  from  the  pollen  tube 
unites  with  a  very  similar  particle  in  the  ovule,  and  the 
two  then  begin  to  grow  and  a  seed  is  formed.  The 
little  particle  in  the  ovule  cannot  grow  unless  it  unites 
with  the  similar  particle  from  the  pollen  tube.  It  is 
frequently  the  case  that  ears  of  corn  on  the  west  side 
of  a  field  have  grains  missing.  This  is  due  to  the  fact 
that  while  the  pollen  was  falling  the  wind  blew  most 
of  it  away,  and  some  of  the  hairs  of  the  silk  (these 
hairs  are  the  styles)  had  no  pollen  grains  light  on  their 
stigmas. 

In  some  grass  flowers  the  styles  protrude  from  the 
flowers  before  the  anthers  do.  When  in  this  stage  a 
grass  is  popularly  said  to  be  in  its  first  bloom.  In 
those  that  protrude  their  anthers  first,  or  at  the  same 
time  with  their  styles,  before  the  anthers  burst  they  are 
said  to  be  in  their  first  bloom.  Later,  when  the  an- 
thers have  shed  their  pollen,  and  hang  limp  on  their 
slender  filaments,  the  plant  is  said  to  be  in  second  bloom. 
Most  of  the  coarser  grasses  make  the  best  hay  if  cut  in 
their  second  bloom — that  is,  when  they  are  just  going 


'- 
o 

fc 
O 


242      FARM    GRASSES    OP    THE    UNITED    STATES 

out  of  blossom.  It  is  believed  by  many  that  if  a  grass 
is  cut  for  hay  when  it  is  shedding  its  pollen  that  the  hay 
is  inferior  in  quality,  because  of  the  presence  of  the 
pollen  dust.  How  much  truth  there  is  in  this  notion 
is  not  known.  Recent  investigations  indicate  that  the 
pollen  of  some  of  the  grasses,  when  breathed  into  the 
nostrils,  causes  hay-fever,  a  disease  in  which  the  mucus 
membrane  of  the  nasal  passages  is  much  inflamed.  It 
is  possible  that  pollen  dust  in  hay  may  cause  some 
trouble  in  the  nasal  passages  of  horses  and  cattle. 

After  the  pollen  falls  on  the  stigma,  and  sends  its 
thread-like  tube  down  through  the  substance  of  the 
style  and  the  ovary  to  the  ovule,  the  seed  at  once  be- 
gins to  develop.  The  time  required  for  the  develop- 
ment of  the  seed  varies  with  different  grasses  from  a 
few  days  to  several  weeks.  In  the  common  hay  grasses 
it  is  about  ten  days  or  two  weeks.  At  first  the  sub- 
stance of  the  seed  is  watery  in  appearance.  Just  be- 
fore it  reaches  its  full  size  it  becomes  milky.  At  this 
time  the  seed  is  said  to  be  "  in  the  milk."  •  If  the  hay 
is  cut  when  the  seed  is  in  the  milk,  some  of  the  seed 
usually  matures  sufficiently  to  grow.  This  is  impor- 
tant in  the  case  of  weedy  grasses,  like  Johnson  grass 
and  quack-grass.  These  should  never  be  left  till  the 
milk  stage  is  reached.  When  the  milk-like  substance 
of  the  seed  begins  to  harden,  the  seed  is  popularly  said 
to  be  ' '  in  the  dough. ' '  Most  seeds  will  grow  readily 
if  the  whole  plant  is  cut  at  this  stage,  though  they  will 
hardly  mature  properly  if  the  seed  is  removed  from  the 
plant  in  the  dough  stage.  Very  few  grasses  make  good 
hay  if  cut  after  the  seed  is  fully  mature. 


INDEX 


The  technical  names  in  this  Index  are  those  which  have  been  most 
generally  used.  They  are  inserted  to  enable  those  not  familiar  with  the 
popular  names  to  recognize  the  plants  discussed  in  the  text. 


PAGE 

Adulteration  of  seeds 68-69 

Aftermath,  Grazing  of 40-41 

Agropyron      divergens.         See 

Bunch-grass 
Agropyron     occidentale.       See 

Bluestem. 
Agropyron  repens.    See  Ouack- 

grass. 
Agropyron  spicatum.     Same  as 

A.  divergens. 
Agropyrontenerum.  See  Slender 

Wheat  Grass. 

Agrostis  alba.    See  Redtop. 
Agrostis   canina.      See    Rhode 

Island  Bent. 

Agrostis  stolonif era.  See  Creep- 
ing Bent. 
Alfalfa  (Medicago  sativa),  Area 

of 11,12 

Distribution  of 11 

hay  on  Western  markets 219 

in  Red  River  Valley 4 

Longevity  of 14,  42 

on  alkali  soils 198 

on    wheat   lands    of    eastern 

Washington 9 

Turkestan 234 

with  Johnson  grass. 142 

yield 11,12 

Alkali  soils,  Grasses  for 197-199 

Alopecurus      pratensis.         See 

Meadow  Foxtail. 
Alsike  Clover  (Tri folium  hybri- 

dum) 150,  193 

Ammophila       arenaria.        See 

Beach-grass. 
Andropogon    virginicus.      See 

Broom-sedge. 

Arctic  Grass.    See  Rescue-grass. 
Arrhenatherum  avenaceum.  See 

Tall  Oat-grass. 

Atlantic  Coast,  Lawn  grasses  for  201 
Atriplex  semibaccata.    See  Aus- 
tralian Salt-bush. 
Australian  Salt-bush  for  alkali 

lands 198 

Avenafatua.    See  Wild  Oats. 

Baling  Hay 39-40 


PAGE 

Barley,  for  pasture 45-46 

for  hay 9 

Barn-yard  Grass  (Panicum  crus- 

galli) 103,116-118 

for  wet  lands 194 

Beach-grass    (Ammophila   are- 
naria)       194 

Beardless  Barley,  for  hay 9 

Bent  Grasses.    See  Redtop. 

Bermuda  Grass  (Cynodon  dacty- 

lon) 125-13? 

common  names 125 

curing  for  hay 131 

distribution 128 

extermination 131-134 

for  hay 130-131 

for  pasture 43,  129-130 

for  lawns  , 201,  202 

history 125, 126 

longevity 14,  42 

Management  of 131 

seed.  Price  of 135 

seed,  Reliability  of 135 

seeding 135-136 

Stage  to  cut 34 

winter  companions. . .  136-137,  202 

Bitterweed    in    Southern    pas- 
tures      51 

Blue-grass  (Poa  pratensis) .. .  90-102 

Advantages  of 90 

common  names 92 

Disadvantages  of 92 

distribution 93-96 

for  lawns 101,  200,  201 

hay.    See  Blue-grass  Hay. 

in  New  England 100 

in  the  Pacific  Northwest 101 

longevity 14,  42 

on  timothy  and  clover  sod. .  15, 17 

on  waste  lands 100 

pasture.    See  Blue-grass  Pas- 
tures. 

seed,  Curing 98 

seed,  Harvesting 61 ,  63 

seed,  production 93 

seed,  Quality  of 98 

seeding,  Method  of 15,  17,  99 

seeding  rate 99 

varieties 232 

243 


244 


INDEX 


Blue-grass  Hay,  Quality  of . . .  90,  96 

Stage  to  cut 34 

yield 93,96 

Blue-grass  Pastures 43,  96-101 

Bluestem  (Agropyron   occiden- 

tale) 189,190 

compared  with  timothy 88 

hay,  rated  on  Western  mar- 
kets   219 

"  Bottom  "  Grasses 150 

Brome-grass   (Bromus  inermis) 

164-175 

distribution 164-168 

hay 168-169 

hay,  Stage  to  cut. . .  33-34,  168-169 

in  Eastern  States 165-168 

in  the  Pacific  Northwest  9, 164-168 

longevity 14 

pasture 43, 168 

pasture  with  alfalfa 47, 168 

popular  names 171 

seed,  Native  vs.  imported.  170-171 

seeding 170 

seed  production 169-171 

varieties 232,  233 

Bromus  carinatus 178 

inermis.    See  Brome-grass. 

marginatus 173 

secalinus.    See  Cheat. 
unioloides.    See  Rescue-grass. 

Broom-corn    Millets    (Panicum 
miliaceum) • 114-116 

Broom-sedge  (Andropogon  vir- 
ginicus) 51 

Buffalo-grass    (Bulbilis    dacty- 
loides)  for  lawns 200 

Bunch-grass  (Agropyron  diver- 
gens) 187 

Canada   Blue-grass    (Poa  com- 

pressa) 101-102 

for  lawns 200,  201,  203 

name  incorrectly  used 176 

Canada  Thistle  (Cnicus  arvensis), 
Effect  of  millet  on 108 

Canada  Field  Pea 11 

Carpet-grass     (Panicum     com- 

pressum) 185 

distribution 188 

for  lawns 203 

Cereals,  for  hay 9, 10 

for  pasture 43,  45-46 

Chcetochloa    sp.      See    Foxtail 
Millets. 

Cheat  (Bromus  secalinus) 173 

Chess.    Same  as  Cheat. 

Clover,  Areaof 12 

crops  per  year 87 

seeding 15,82-87 

yield 12 

Cnicus  arvensis.     See   Canada 
Thistle. 


PAGE 

Coarseness  as  related  to   feed 

value 159 

Cock'sfoot.    See  Orchard-grass. 
Colorado  Grass    (Panicum  tex- 

anum) 118-119 

Commercial  fertilizers,  made 
necessary  by  system  of 

farming 4 

forgrass  lands 21,  53-55 

Common  Millet 111,112 

Cotton  as  a  pasture  plant 43 

Cow-peas  ( Vigna  sinensis),  10, 1 1 , 107 
Crab-grass    (Panicum    sangui- 

nale) 185-186 

Creeping  Bent  (Agrostis  stoloni- 

fera).  for  lawns 205 

Curing  hay 34-37 

Cynodon   dactylon.      See   Ber- 
muda Grass 
Cutting  hay.    See  Hay. 

Dactylis  glomerata.  See  Or- 
chard-grass. 

Distichlis  maritima.  See  Salt- 
grass. 

Dry  lands,  Grasses  for 197 

Elymus  condensatus.    See  Giant 

Rye-grass. 
English     Blue-grass     (Festuca 

pratensis) 176 

English       Rye-grass      (Lolium 

perenne) 179-181 

failure  in  timothy  region 16 

importance  in  Europe 16 

Erigeron  strigosus.    See  White- 

'weed. 
European     grasses    in    United 

States 16 


Fads,  Grass 

Fern,  weed  on  the  Pacific  Coast.    52 

Fertilizers,  effect  on  weeds 49 

for  lawns 214-215 

(See  also  Commercial  Fertiliz- 
ers and  Manures.) 

Fescues,  for  lawns 203 

Festuca  australis,  for  lawns —  203 

duriuscula,  for  lawns 203 

heterophylla,  for  lawns 203 

ovina,  for  lawns 203 

pratensis.  See  Meadow-fescue. 
pratensis   var.    elatior.      See 
Tall  Fescue. 

rubra.  for  lawns 203 

tenuifolia,  for  lawns 203 

Flowers  of  the  grasses 236-242 

Forage  crops,  Area  of 1 

Distribution  of 11 

Fowl  Meadow-grass  (Poa  scro- 

tina) 150,193-194 

Foxtail  Millets  (Chcetochloa  sp.) 

111-114 


INDEX 


245 


German  Millet Ill,  113 

Giant  Rye-grass   (Elymus  con- 

densatus) 198,  199 

Grade  of  hay— effect  on  sale  of 

hay 220 

Grades  of  hay 217-220 

Grain  hay,  area  9 

distribution 10 

grades 219 

Grapevines  for  pasture 43 

Grass,  defined 1 

Grass     crop,  distribution    and 

area 3 

Grass  fads 232-234 

Grass  flower 236-242 

Grasses  for  special  conditions, 

192-199 

for  alkali  soils 197-199 

for  dry  lands 197 

for  lawns 200-205 

for  sandy  lands 194-196 

for  wet  lands 193-194 

Green  manuring 20-21 

Guinea-grass   (Panicum   maxi- 
mum)    190-191 

name  incorrectly  used 137 

Hay,  Area  of  in  United  States..      2 
Color  of,  relation  to  quality. .    35 

Curing 34-37 

Grades  of 217-220 

measuring  in  stack 220-224 

price,  how  fixed, 88, 169 

Stacking  and  baling 37-40 

Stage  to  cut 30-34 

value  of  crop..   2 

Hay  and  forage,  Per  cent,  of  im- 
proved land  devoted  to 3 

Herd's-grass  (timothy   in   New 

England,    and    Redtop    in 

Middle  and  South  Atlantic 

States). 

Holcus   lanatus.      See    Veivet- 

gress. 

Hopkins,   Dr.   A..  D.,  Improve- 
ment of  timothy  by 229-231 

Hungarian  Grass Ill,  113 

Improved    land,   Area    of.    in 

United  States ; . . . .      1 

Improvement  of  Grasses 226-232 

Italian       Rye-grass       (Lolium 

italicum) 179,  181-182 

for  lawns 204 

for  lawns,  with  Bermuda 201 

importance  in  Europe 16 

failure  in  timothy  region 16 

stage  to  cut  for  hay 34 

Japanese      Millets      (Panicum 
crus-galli) 116-118 


PAGE 

Johnson  Grass  (Sorghum  hale- 

^ense) 137-145 

distribution 144-145 

eradication 141 

hay,  Stage  to  cut 32,  33 

hay,  Value  of 139 

longevity 14 

meadow,  Management  of 143 

moisture,  relation  to 144 

pasture 41, 143 

soils,  relation  to 4,  144-145 

seed,  weight 143 

seeding,  rate 143 

seeding,  time 143-144 

weedy  character 49,  137 

with  alfalfa 142 

Juncus  balticus.  See  South  Park 
Hay. 

June   Grass.       Same  as  Blue- 
grass. 

Kafir  Corn,  Distribution  of 11 

Kentucky  Blue-grass.    Same  as 

Blue-grass. 
Korean  Lawn-grass  (Osterdamia 

matrella) 201,  202-203 

Large  Water-grass   (Paspalum 
dilatatum) 189-190, 194 

Lawn-grassesf  or  Atlantic  States  201 

for  Northern  States 200-201 

for  Southern  States 201 

Lawn-making 206-211 

Lawns  and  Lawn-making. . .  200-216 

Lawns,  Fertilizing 214-215 

Mowing 211-212 

Renovating 216 

Rolling 214 

Watering 212-214 

Weeding 215-216 

Leckenby,  A.  B.,  Improvement 
of  grasses  by 230-232 

Lime,  effect  on  sorrel 49 

for  curing  hay 36 

Lolium   italicum.    See   Italian 
Rye-grass. 

Lolium  perenne.    See    English 
Rye-grass. 

Lucern.    Same  as  Alfalfa. 

Manure  for  grass  lands 15,  52-55 

Marram  Grass.    Same  as  Beach 

Grass. 
Meadow-fescue     (Festuca  pra- 

tensis) 176-178 

Adaptability  of 21 

Importance  of , 16 

weight  of  seed 178 

Meadow-foxtail         (Alopecurus 

pratensis) 16 

Meadows,    grazing     the    after- 
math   40-41 

time  to  keep  down 42 


246 


INDEX 


PAGE 

Meadows  and  pastures 14-55 

longevity 14-15,  42-43 

Management  of 15-18 

Manuring 15,  52-55 

nurse  crop 28-29 

preparation  of  soil 18-22 

seeding 22-30 

Weeds  in 48-52 

Mean's  Grass.    Same  as  John- 
son Grass. 

Measuring  hay  in  stack 220-224 

Medicago  sativa.    See  Alfalfa. 

Millet  as  soiling  crop 109 

in  rotation  with  rye 106 

pasture 109 

preparation  of  soil 107 

seed,  Yield  of 110 

weight 110 

as  feed 110-111 

seeding,  rate 109-110 

soils,  relation  to 107 

Millet  disease 122-124 

Millet  hay,  Curing 108 

Harvesting 110 

Stage  to  cut 108-109 

value  of 119-124 

Millets 103-124 

Broom-corn    (Panicum    mili- 

aceum) 103, 114-116 

Foxtail  (Chcetochloa  sp.) 

103, 111-114 
Japanese  (Panicum  crus-galli), 

103, 116-118 
Texas  (Panicum  texanum), 

103, 118-119 

Millets  and  Hungarian  Grasses, 

area 11,12 

distribution 11, 104,105 

yield 12 

Mixtures,  Amount  of  each  kind 

of  seed  in 23 

European  idea  of 150-151 

for  Middle  £outh 21 

for  wet  lands 150, 193-194 

with  timothy 82-87 

Northern  States,  Lawn  grasses 

for  200-201 

Nurse  crop 15, 17,  28-29,  84 

Oats,  for  hay 10 

for  pasture 45 

Orchard-grass  (Dactylis  glome- 

rata) 154-163 

adaptability 21 

distribution 160-162 

feed  value 158 

importance 16 

longevity 14, 159 

pasture 158-159 

seed,  production 156 

seed,  weight 162 

seed,  yield 162-163 


PACK 

Orchard-grass,  seeding,  rate —  163 

sod,  Character  of 157-158 

Stage  to  cut 33, 157 

with  red  clover 158 

Osterdamia  matrella.  See  Ko- 
rean Lawn- grass. 

"Other  tame  grasses,"  defined.      7 

area 12 

yield 12 

Panicle,  defined 236 

illustrated 239 

Panicum  ccmpressum.  See  Car- 
pet-grass. 

crus-galli.       See      Barn-yard 

Grass  and  Japanese  Millets. 

maximum.    See  Guinea  Grass. 

miliaceum.     See  Broom-corn 

Millets. 

molle.    See  Par&  Grass. 
sanguinale.    See  Crab-grass. 
texanum.  See  Colorado  Grass. 
Pard  grass  (Panicum  molle),  190-191 
Paspalumdilatatum.  See  Large 

Water-grass. 
Pasture  lands,  Area  of,  in  United 

States 2 

Pasture  Mixtures 46-48,  178 

Pastures.  See  also  Meadows  and 
Pastures  and  references  un- 
der individual  grasses 43-48 

crops  used 43 

on  waste  lands 47 

Tendency   to   dispense   with, 

16,43-44 

Pasturing,  Best  method  of 44-45 

in  wet  weather 46 

Pearl  millet  (Pennisetum  spica- 

tum) 234-235 

Pencillaria.    Same  as  Pearl  Mil- 
let. 
Pennisetum  spicatum.  See  Pearl 

Millet. 
Phleum  pratense.  See  Timothy. 

Plantain  (Plantago  sp.) 51 

Poa   arachnifera.      See   Texas 

Blue-grass. 

compressa.    See  Canada  Blue- 
grass. 

macrantha.   See  Seaside  Blue- 
grass. 

nemoralis.  See  Wood  Meadow- 
grass. 

pratensis.    See  Blue-^niss. 
serotina.    See  Fowl  Meadow- 
grass. 
trivialis.     See  Rough  stalked 

Meadow-grass. 

Polygonum  sachalinense.  See 
£>achaline. 

,  50, 108 


INDKX 


247 


PAGE 

Rate  of  seeding.    See  Seeding, 
rate. 

Ray-grass.    Same  as  Rye-grass, 
origin  of  name 181 

Red  clover  (TrifoUumpratense), 

14,  15,  17 
(See  also  Clover.) 

Redtop  (Agrostis  alba) 146-154 

adaptability 21 

distribution 146,  149 

effect  on  grades  of  hay 148 

Forms  of 153 

hay.  Value  of 148 

in  the  Middle  South 151-152 

in  New  England 151-152 

lawns 200-201,  205 

longevity 14 

on  wet  lands 150,  193 

pastures 153 

seed 153 

seed,  weight  of 153 

seed,  where  grown 146 

seeding,  rate 153 

soils,  relation  to 146, 148-149 

with  timothy 85 

Rescue-grass      (Bromus       uni- 
oloides) 173 

Rhode    Island    Bent    (Agrostis 
canina) 205 

Rotation  for  Middle  South 21 

Rough-stalked      meadow-grass 
(Poa  trivialis)  for  lawns 204 

Rye 45 

Rye-grasses  (Lolium  sp.)  —  179-182 

Rumex  acetosella.    See  sorrel. 

Sachaline,  a  fad 234 

St.    Augustine  Grass  (Stenota- 

£hrum  dimidiatum),  196,  201,  202 
ucie  Grass 134-135,201,202 

Salt,  added  to  hay  in  stacking. .    36 
Salt-grass  (Distichlis  maritima)  199 

Sandy  lands,  Grasses  for 194-196 

Seaside   blue-grass   (Poa   mac- 

rantha) 195, 196 

Seed-bed,  Preparation  of ,  18,  206-211 

Seed  control 70-72 

Seed  formation 236-242 

Seed  habits,  effect  on  value,  224-226 

Seeding 22-30,  207-210 

cost  of,  with  different  grasses, 

60-64 

covering  the  seed 29-30 

lawns 207-210 

Machines  for 27-28 

Manner  of 27-28 

Rate   of,   conditions   govern- 
ing    24-25 

Sowing  the  seed 26-27 

Time  to  sow 26-27 

Seed  production 5G-60 

distribution  of 57 

localization  of 156 


Seed  Testing 22,  70-74 

Seeds 56-74 

Adulteration  of 68-69 

Cost  of 60-64 

Guaranteed 69-70 

how  to  get  tested 22 

number  per  pound 70 

of  standard  grasses,  ill'd 58,  59 

of  weeds,  illustrated 65,  68 

testing 22,  70-74 

weight  per  bushel 64-65 

Slender  wheat  grass  (Agropyron 

tenerum) 187 

Southern  States,  Lawn  grasses 

for 201 

Soiling  vs.  Pasturing 16 

Sorghum,  Distribution  of 11 

Uses 11 

Sorghum  halepense.    See  John- 
son Grass. 

Sorrel  (Rumex  acetosella) 49 

South  Park  Hay  (Juncus   bal- 

ticus) 88,220 

Spike 236,  237 

Spikelet 236, 237 

Stacking  hay 34-39 

Stenotaphrum  dimidiatum.  See 

St.  Augustine  Grass. 
Subsoiling 19 

Tall  Fescue  (Festuca  pratensis 

elatior) 176-178 

Tall  Oat-grass  (Arrhenatherum 

avenaceum) 14,  21, 182-183 

Tall  Meadow  Oat-grass.    Same 
as  Tall  Oat-grass. 

Terracing 4 

Texas  Blue-grass    (Poa   arach- 

nifera) 102 

Texas  Millet.  Same  as  Colorado 

Grass. 
Timothy.      (Phleum    pratense) 

75-89 

Area  of,  in  United  States 7 

Distribution  of 7,  78-82 

for  wet  lands 193 

hay,  Stage  to  cut 32,  87-88 

hay,  Value  of 87-S8 

importance 14, 16,  75 

longevity 14 

pasture 41,  88 

popularity  of,  cause 75-78 

seed,  Low  price  of 62 

seed,  Yield  of 89 

seed  habits 75 

seeding 15, 17,  82-87 

yield 7,  87 

varieties 229-231 

Timothy    and  Clover  Meadows 

as  pastures 15 

longevity 15,  17,  87 

Management  of 15 

Manuring J5,  17,  52-55 


248 


INDEX 


Timothy  and   Clover  Meadows 
precede  corn  in  rotations —     17 

seeding 15, 17,  82-87 

yield 17,  87 

Timothy  region  defined 7 

"  Top  "  grasses 150 

Trifolium  hybridum.  See  Alsike 

Clover. 

pratense.    See  Red  Clover. 
repens.    See  White  Clover. 

Turfing 211 

Turkestan  Alfalfa 234 

Velvet-grass  (Holcus  lanatus), 

183-185, 196 
Vigna  sinensis.    See  Cow-peas. 

Waste  land  as  pasture 48 

Weeding  lawns 215-216 


PAGE 

Weed  seeds 65-68 

Weeds   in   meadows   and    pas- 
tures          48-52 

in  lawns 215 

Wet  lands,  Grasses  for 193-194 

Wheat  Hay 9,  219 

White  Clover  ( Trifolium  repens)  101 
Whiteweed  (Erigeron  strigosus)    49 

Wild  hay 12,  13 

Wild  Oat  Hay. 9,32,219 

Stage  to  cut 32 

Wild  Rice  (Zizania  aquatica} ...  194 
Winter      Cereals,      Distinctive 

character  of 46 

for  pastures 45,  46 

Wood  Meadow-grass  (Poanemo- 
ralis) 204 


Zizania   aquatica. 
Rice. 


See    Wild 


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trated. 248  pages.  5x7  inches.  Cloth.  .  .  .  $1.00 

The  Book  of  Corn 

By  HERBERT  MYRICK,  assisted  by  A.  D.  SHAMEL,  E.  A. 
BURNETT,  ALBERT  W.  FULTON,  B.  W.  SNOW,  and  other  most 
capable  specialists.  A  complete  treatise  on  the  culture, 
marketing  and  uses  of  maize  in  America  and  elsewhere,  for 
farmers,  dealers  and  others.  Illustrated.  372  pages.  5x7 
inches.  Cloth. $1.50 

The    Hop  —  Its    Culture  and  Care,  Marketing 
and  Manufacture 

By  HERBERT  MYRICK.  A  practical  handbook  on  the  most 
approved  methods  in  growing,  harvesting,  curing  and  selling 
hops,  and  on  the  use  and  manufacture  of  hops.  The  result  of 
years  of  research  and  observation,  it  is  a  volume  destined  to  be 
an  authority  on  this  crop  for  many  years  to  come.  It  takes  up 
every  detail  from  preparing  the  soil  and  laying  out  the  yard, 
to  curing  and  selling  the  crop.  Every  line  represents  the 
ripest  judgment  and  experience  of  experts.  Size,  5x8;  pages, 
300;  illustrations,  nearly  150;  bound  in  cloth  and  gold;  price, 
postpaid, $1.50 

Tobacco  Leaf 

By  J.  B.  KILLEBREW  and  HERBERT  MYRICK.  Its  Culture 
and  Cure,  Marketing  and  Manufacture.  A  practical  handbook 
on  the  most  approved  methods  in  growing,  harvesting,  curing, 
packing  and  selling  tobacco,  with  an  account  of  the  opera- 
tions in  every  department  of  tobacco  manufacture.  The 
contents  of  this  book  are  based  on  actual  experiments  in  field, 
curing  barn,  packing  house,  factory  and  laboratory.  It  is  the 
only  work  of  the  kind  in  existence,  and  is  destined  to  be  the 
standard  practical  and  scientific  authority  on  the  whole  sub- 
ject of  tobacco  for  many  years.  506  pages  and  150  original 
engravings.  5  x  7  inches.  Cloth $2.00 


Animal  Breeding 

By  THOMAS  SHA\Y.  This  book  is  the  most  complete  and 
comprehensive  work  ever  published  on  the  subject  of  which 
it  treats.  It  is  the  first  book  which  has  systematized  the  subject 
of  animal  breeding.  The  leading  laws  which  govern  this 
most  intricate  question  the  author  has  boldly  defined  and 
authoritatively  arranged.  The  chapters  which  he  has  written 
on  the  more  involved  features  of  the  subject,  as  sex  and  the 
relative  influence  of  parents,  should  go  far  toward  setting  at 
rest  the  wildly  speculative  views  cherished  with  reference  to 
these  questions.  The  striking  originality  in  the  treatment  of 
the  subject  is  no  less  conspicuous  than  the  superb  order  and 
regular  sequence  of  thought  from  the  beginning  to  the  end 
of  the  book.  The  book  is  intended  to  meet  the  needs  of  all 
persons  interested  in  the  breeding  and  rearing  of  live  stock. 
Illustrated.  405  pages.  5x7  inches.  Cloth.  .  .  $1.50 

Forage  Crops  Other  Than  Grasses 

By  THOMAS  SHAW.  How  to  cultivate,  harvest  and  use 
them.  Indian  corn,  sorghum,  clover,  leguminous  plants,  crops 
of  the  brassica  genus,  the  cereals,  millet,  field  roots,  etc. 
Intensely  practical  and  reliable.  Illustrated.  287  pages.  5x7 
inches.  Cloth. $1.00 

Soiling  Crops  and  the  Silo 

By  THOMAS  SHAW.  The  growing  and  feeding  of  all  kinds 
of  soiling  crops,  cqnditions  to  which  they  are  adapted,  their 
plan  in  the  rotation,  etc.  Not  a  line  is  repeated  from  the 
Forage  Crops  book.  Best  methods  of  building  the  silo,  filling 
it  and  feeding  ensilage.  Illustrated.  364  pages.  5x7  inches. 
Cloth.  $1.50 

The  Study  of  Breeds 

By  THOMAS  SHAW.  Origin,  history,  distribution,  charac- 
teristics, adaptability,  uses,  and  standards  of  excellence  of  all 
pedigreed  breeds  of  cattle,  sheep  and  swine  in  America.  The 
accepted  text  book  in  colleges,  and  the  authority  for 
farmers  and  breeders.  Illustrated.  371  pages.  5x7  inches. 
Cloth.  $1.50 

Profits  in  Poultry 

Useful  and  ornamental  breeds  and  their  profitable  man- 
agement. This  excellent  work  contains  the  combined  expe- 
rience of  a  number  of  practical  men  in  all  departments  of 
poultry  raising.  It  forms  a  unique  and  important  addition  to 
our  poultry  literature.  Profusely  illustrated.  352  pages.  5x7 
inches.  Cloth $1.00 


Alfalfa 

By  F.  D.  COBURN.  Its  growth,  uses,  and  feeding  value. 
The  fact  that  alfalfa  thrives  in  almost  'any  soil;  that  without 
reseeding,  it  goes  on  yielding  two,  three,  four,  and  sometimes 
five  cuttings  annually  for  five,  ten,  or  perhaps  100  years ;  and 
that  either  green  or  cured  it  is  one  of  the  most  nutritious 
forage  plants  known,  makes  reliable  information  upon  its  pro- 
duction and  uses  of  unusual  interest.  Such  information  is 
given  in  this  volume  for  every  part  of  America,  by  the  highest 
authority.  Illustrated.  164  pages.  5x7  inches.  Cloth.  $0.50 

Ginseng,  Its  Cultivation,   Harvesting,   Market- 
ing and  Market  Value 

By  MAURICE  G.  KAINS,  with  a  short  account  of  its  history 
and  botany.  It  discusses  in  a  practical  way  how  to  begin  with- 
either  seed  or  roots,  soil,  climate  and  location,  preparation, 
planting  and  maintenance  of  the  beds,  artificial  propagation; 
manures,  enemies,  selection  for  market  and  for  improvement, 
preparation  for  sale,  and  the  profits  that  may  be  expected. 
This  booklet  is  concisely  written,  well  and  profusely  illus- 
trated, and  should  be  in  the  hands  of  all  who  expect  to  grow 
this  drug  to  supply  the  export  trade,  and  to  add  a  new  and 
profitable  industry  to  their  farms  and  gardens,  without  inter- 
fering with  the  regular  wo'  ,  New  edition.  Revised  and  en- 
larged. Illustrated.  5x7  inches.  Cloth.  .  ,  .  $0.50 

Landscape  Gardening 

By  F.  A.  WAUGH,  professor  of  horticulture,  university  of 
Vermont.  A  treatise  on  the  general  principles  governing 
outdoor  art;  with  sundry  suggestions  for  their  application 
in  the  commoner  problems  of  gadening.  Every  paragraph  is 
short,  terse  and  to  the  point,  giving  perfect  clearness  to  the 
discussions  at  all  points.  In  spite  of  the  natural  difficulty 
of  presenting  abstract  principles  the  whole  matter  is  made 
entirely  plain  even  to  the  inexperienced  reader.  Illustrated. 
152  pages.  5x7  inches.  Cloth $0.50 

Hedges,  Windbreaks,  Shelters  and  Live  Fences 

By  E.  P.  POWELL.  A  treatise  on  the  planting,  growth 
and  management  of  hedge  plants  for  country  and  suburban 
homes.  It  gives  accurate  directions  concerning  hedges;  how 
to  plant  and  how  to  treat  them;  and  especially  concerning 
windbreaks  and  shelters.  It  includes  the  whole  art  of  making 
a  delightful  home,  giving  directions  for  nooks  and  balconies, 
for  bird  culture  and  for  human  comfort.  Illustrated.  140 
pages.  5x7  inches.  Cloth $0.50 


Land  Draining 

A  handbook  for  farmers  on  the  principles  and  practice  of 
draining,  by  MANLY  MILES,  giving  the  results  of  his  extended 
experience  in  laying  tile  drains.  The  directions  for  the  laying 
out  and  the  construction  of  tile  drains  will  enable  the  farmer 
to  avoid  the  errors  of  imperfect  construction,  and  the  disap- 
pointment that  must  necessarily  follow.  This  manual  for 
practical  farmers  will  also  be  found  convenient  for  reference 
in  regard  to  many  questions  that  may  arise  in  crop  growing, 
aside  from  the  special  subjects  of  drainage  of  which  it  treats. 
Illustrated.  200  pages.  5x7  inches.  Cloth.  .  .  $1.00 

Barn  Plans  and  Outbuildings 

Two  hundred  and  fifty-seven  illustrations.  A  most  valu- 
able work,  full  of  ideas,  hints,  suggestions,  plans,  etc.,  for  the 
construction  of  barns  and  outbuildings,  by  practical  writers. 
Chapters  are  devoted  to  the  economic  erection  and  use  of 
barns,  grain  barns,  horse  barns,  cattle  barns,  sheep  barns,  corn- 
houses,  smokehouses,  icehouses,  pig  pens,  granaries,  etc. 
There  are  likewise  chapters  on  birdhouses,  doghouses,  tool 
sheds,  ventilators,  roofs  and  roofing,  doors  and  fastenings, 
workshops,  poultry  houses,  manure  sheds,  barnyards,  root  pits, 
etc.  235  pages.  5x7  inches.  Cloth $l.oo 

Irrigation  Farming 

By  LUTE  WILCOX.  A  handbook  for  the  practical  applica- 
tion of  water  in  the  production  of  crops.  A  complete  treatise 
on  water  supply,  canal  construction,  reservoirs  and  ponds, 
pipes  for  irrigation  purposes,  flumes  and  their  structure, 
methods  of  applying  water,  irrigation  of  field  crops,  the 
garden,  the  orchard  and  vineyard,  windmills  and  pumps, 
appliances  and  contrivances.  New  edition,  revised,  enlarged 
and  rewritten.  Profusely  illustrated.  Over  500  pages.  5x7 
inches.  Cloth. $2.00 

Forest  Planting 

By  H.  NICHOLAS  JARCHOW,  LL.  D.  A  treatise  on  the  care 
of  woodlands  and  the  restoration  of  the  denuded  timberlands 
on  plains  and  mountains.  The  author  has  fully  described 
those  European  methods  which  have  proved  to  be  most  useful 
in  maintaining  the  superb  forests  of  the  old  world.  This  expe- 
rience has  been  adapted  to  the  different  climates  and  trees  of 
America,  full  instructions  being  given  for  forest  planting  of 
our  various  kinds  of  soil  and  subsoil,  whether  on  mountain 
or. valley.  Illustrated.  250  pages.  5x7  inches,  Cloth.  $1.50 


The  New  Egg   Farm 

By  H.  H.  STODDARD.  A  practical,  reliable  manual  on 
producing  eggs  and  poultry  for  market  as  a  profitable  business 
enterprise,  either  by  itself  or  connected  with  other  branches 
of  agriculture.  It  tells  all  about  how  to  feed  and  manage, 
how  to  breed  and  select,  incubators  and  brooders,  its  labor- 
saving  devices,  etc.,  etc.  Illustrated.  331  pages.  5x7  inches. 
Cloth.  $1.00 

Poultry  Feeding  and  Fattening 

Compiled  by  G.  B.  FISKE.  A  handbook  for  poultry  keep- 
ers on  the  standard  and  improved  methods  of  feeding  and 
marketing  all  kinds  of  poultry.  The  subject  of  feeding  and 
fattening  poultry  is  prepared  largely  from  the  side  of  the 
best  practice  and  experience  here  and  abroad,  although  the 
underlying  science  of  feeding  is  explained  as  fully  as  needful. 
The  subject  covers  all  branches,  including  chickens,  broilers, 
capons,  turkeys  and  waterfowl ;  how  to  feed  under  various 
conditions  and  for  different  purposes.  The  whole  subject  of 
capons  and  caponizing  is  treated  in  detail.  A  great  mass  of 
practical  information  and  experience  not  readily  obtainable 
elsewhere  is  given  with  full  and  explicit  directions  for  fatten- 
ing and  preparing  for  market.  This  book  will  meet  the  needs 
of  amateurs  as  well  as  commercial  poultry  raisers.  Profusely 
illustrated.  160  pages.  5x71-2  inches.  Cloth.  .  $0.50 

Poultry  Architecture 

Compiled  by  G.  B.  FTSKE.  A  treatise  on  poultry  buildings 
of  all  grades,  styles  and  classes,  and  their  proper  location, 
coops,  additions  and  special  construction ;  all  practical  in  de- 
sign, and  reasonable  in  cost.  Over  100  illustrations.  125  pages. 
5x7  inches.  Cloth $0.50 

Poultry  Appliances  and  Handicraft 

Compiled  by  G.  B.  FISKE.  Illustrated  descriptions  of  a 
great  variety  and  styles  of  the  best  homemade  nests,  roosts, 
windows,  ventilators,  incubators  and  brooders,  feeding  and 
watering  appliances,  etc.,  etc.  Over  100  illustrations.  Over 
125  pages.  5x7  inches.  Cloth $0.50 

Turkeys  and  How  to  Grow  Them 

Edited  by  HERBERT  MYRICK.  A  treatise  on  the  natural 
history  and  origin  of  the  name  of  turkeys;  the  various  breeds, 
the  best  methods  to  insure  success  in  the  business  of  turkey 
growing.  With  essays  from  practical  turkey  growers  in 
different  parts  of  the  "United  States  and  Canada.  Copiously 
illustrated.  154  pages.  5x7  inches.  Cloth  ,  .  .  $1.00 


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Farmer's  Cyclopedia 
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A  Compendium  of  Agricultural  Science  and  Praftice 
on  Farm,  Orchard  and  Garden  Crops,  and  the 
Feeding  and  Diseases  of  Farm  Animals 

"By    EARLEY  VERNON  WILCOX,  Ph.D 
CLARENCE   SEAMAN  SMITH,    M.S 

Associate  Editors  in  the  Office  of  Experiment  Stations^   United  States 
Department  of  Agriculture 

T|His  is  a  new,  practical,  and  complete  pres- 
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all   matters    pertaining  to   crops    and    stock,  but 
more    particularly  for  the    actual  farmer.       The 
volume  contains 

Detailed  directions  for  the  culture  of  every 
important   field,    orchard,    and    garden    crop 

grown  in  America,  together  with  descriptions  of 
their  chief  insect  pests  and  fungous  diseases,  and 
remedies  for  their  control.  It  contains  an  ac- 
count of  modern  methods  in  feeding  and  handling 
all  farm  stock,  including  poultry.  The  diseases 
which  affect  different  farm  animals  and  poultry 
are  described,  and  the  most  recent  remedies  sug- 
gested for  controlling  them. 

Every  bit  of  this  vast  mass  of  new  and  useful 
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making  the  most  perfect  Cyclopedia  of  Agricul- 
ture. ever  attempted. 

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